Champagne Extra Brut
Le Sous-Trait - Édition N°01

Baptiste and Charles Ponsart are two young vignerons from Janvry, the fifth generation of a village family whose grapes first went to the local cooperative, founded in 1961 with their grandfather among its promoters, and then to the label created in 1982 by their parents Pascal Ponsart and Isabelle Delagarde, until in 2016, after separate paths between Champagne and Bordeaux, the two brothers set aside just under two hectares to make Champagne under their own name. Janvry lies west of Reims, on the north-western slope of the Montagne de Reims, where the land falls away towards the Vallée de la Vesle, in a landscape still broken up between vines, woods and orchards, far from the monoculture of the Côte des Blancs.

The village's roughly 35 hectares of vines speak of a clear vocation for Meunier, which until 2024 the brothers pressed at the cooperative's facilities, before opening their own press house and winery. The family vineyards now come close to ten hectares across Janvry, Germigny and neighbouring villages, about two-thirds Meunier with the rest divided between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, farmed without herbicides since their grandparents' day and picked at full ripeness, while in the cellar everything stays essential, spontaneous fermentations with indigenous yeasts, stainless steel and 228- and 600-litre casks, no fining or filtration, minimal dosage, giving Champagne that is straightforward and saline.