Femme de Champagne, Grand Cru Brut Nature, Champagne Duval-Leroy 2002
Falstaff 100; Decanter 96 (2023); Guia Penin 95; James Suckling 94; Richard Juhlin 90; La Revue du Vin de France 90; Decanter World Wine Awards 96 points
Mix any six bottles and you pay the Any 6+ price at checkout — no code needed.
£10 tracked UK delivery, however many bottles.
We pack and send twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays, by Royal Mail Tracked 48.
Members pay £282.00 — £70.50 less on this bottle. Membership is £120 a year and carries the EDKA Promise. Membership terms
Why this wine
Duval-Leroy makes Femme de Champagne only in years it considers exceptional, and 2002 is widely held to be the Champagne vintage of its decade. Twenty years on the fine lees, 20% matured in used Château d'Yquem barrels and no dosage at all is an unusually uncompromising combination. Grand Cru fruit throughout, from Oger, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Ambonnay.
At a glance
- Grape
- Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
- Region
- Champagne, France
- Alcohol
- 12.50%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- High
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Exceptional Longevity (15-50+ Years)
- Pairs with
- Seafood, Poultry & Pork, Cheese
How it tastes
Brioche, hazelnut and tobacco from two decades on the lees, layered over minerality and a deep core of fruit. Silky and concentrated on the palate with great length, and bone dry — no dosage at all, and 0.9 g/l of residual sugar. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
The producer
Duval-Leroy was founded in 1859 when the Duval and Leroy families joined forces, and it remains one of the last independent, family-owned houses in Champagne, now in its sixth generation. Carol Duval-Leroy led it for more than thirty years from 1991 and was the first and only woman to be appointed president of the Association Viticole Champenoise; her sons Julien, Charles and Louis have since taken it on. The house is based at Vertus in the Côte des Blancs, HVE3 certified across a 200-hectare estate of which 40% is Premier and Grand Cru. This cuvée is made only in exceptional years, from the Chardonnay Grand Crus of Oger, Cramant and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and the Pinot Noir Grand Cru of Ambonnay. The hand-harvested fruit was fermented with selected yeasts at 18°C in stainless steel and went through malolactic conversion; the still wine saw no lees contact, but 20% was matured in used Château d'Yquem barrels for texture before the blend spent twenty years on the fine lees in bottle. 2002 was a dry year of exceptional maturity, with northerly and easterly winds keeping the vineyards healthy and early-summer water stress concentrating the juice, picked mid-September with high sugars and good acidity.
Food and drinking
Serve at 11–12°C, in a white wine glass rather than a flute. It will carry turbot in butter sauce, roast guinea fowl, truffled risotto or a mature Comté. Drinking beautifully now and will hold for many years yet; no decanting needed. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.