JULY 2025

We have spent the better part of the late spring and early summer in Champagne, scouting new producers and visiting with old friends. For our July shipment we have chosen one of our all time, and oldest, favorites. We first connected with Labbe and Fils in early 2021 and have been big fans ever since.

Damien and Jérôme Labbe come from a long line of grape growers, and more recently winemakers. The house, located in the village of Chamery in the Montagne de Reims, started making champagne at the end of the 20th century; the exact year is not known. For generations the family simply grew grapes in their small plot in their small village and sold them after each harvest.  

It was Damien and Jérôme’s father, who in 1974, secretly installed a press in the cellar (so his grand-father wouldn’t find out) who really pushed the winery in the direction it has taken today. The family has handled every aspect of their winemaking ever since.  

Labbe & Fils now consists of 10ha of vines spread over 40 plots in 4 different villages. All of the plots are very close to the house, the furthest is only 5km away. This proximity does not mean homogeneity, in fact quite the opposite with each village having dramatically different exposures, soil types and personality. Ecueil is mostly sandy with silt and limestone, Sermiers is clay with limestone and Villers aux Nodes is more silty limestone. Their home village of Chamery is rather balanced but more and more calcareous as you go up the hills.

 Jérôme is a trained oenologist and spent 7 years working as an assistant cellar master with Bruno Paillard where he learned how to seamlessly integrate oak barrels in to his wine making. They use the barrels to ferment and age single plots that they have identified as the best of the best and use those for their top of the range cuvées and as the base of the rest of the wines in the portfolio.

 These Champagnes are vinous, complex and seriously well made. Great things are coming out of this cellar and will only continue to get better.

Stay tuned as we share more about them and our recent finds!!