Five harvest years in one bottle. Another five years on the lees. One crown cap removed in October 2024. What ends up in your glass smells of ripe red fruit, a hint of tobacco, and lingers for minutes. That is what a Champagne from a small grower does when you drink it shortly after disgorgement. Joshua of Mijn Champagne Moment came back for a second Sparks conversation, and this time we went deep on how a Champagne is actually built.
We opened a blanc de noirs and a blanc de blancs from Jean-Laurent, both picked up by Joshua himself in the region.
This episode was recorded in Dutch. Watch on YouTube with auto-translated subtitles via the link above.
Who is Joshua
Joshua fell for Champagne in 2010. Not at the local liquor store, where most houses are represented only by their entry-level cuvée. He fell for it when he went looking for a wedding bottle in the region itself and ended up at a small grower’s door. From that moment on it became a hobby that grew out of hand. Today he runs Mijn Champagne Moment with three colleagues and ships across the Netherlands.
The mission is straightforward. Give small growers a stage, and pull Champagne out of its New Year’s Eve corner. Every month Joshua drives to Champagne to pick up freshly disgorged bottles from families he has known for years. He films them too. Those short portraits live on his YouTube channel.
What makes Champagne, Champagne
The process follows a strict protocol. Otherwise it cannot be sold as Champagne.
In August or September the grapes themselves decide when picking starts. Each village measures sugar and acidity. From that moment a grower has roughly ten days to bring his parcel in. Pick early, and you get fresher grapes. Wait a few more days, and you get a touch more sugar.
Right after pressing the juice goes into stainless tanks. One per village, one per grape variety. The first fermentation happens there: dark, controllable, no outside influence. The grower ends up with a clean palette of base wines. Pure Chardonnay from village A, pure Pinot Noir from village B, Meunier from C.
After about six months the puzzle begins. The grower blends his base wines into a cuvée that should taste in five years exactly the way he intends it to taste today. That cuvée goes into the bottle with a crown cap. The second fermentation happens there, and that is how the bubbles are born.
The bottle then rests horizontally on its lees. Toward the end it is turned a quarter of a rotation per day for forty days, until the yeast residue settles in the neck. The neck is frozen, the bottle opened, the residue shoots out under its own pressure. That moment, the disgorgement, is the only window where the grower may add sugar. Brut means five to twelve grams per liter. Then the real cork goes on.
Why the disgorgement date matters
This is Joshua’s drumbeat. Champagne is not built to age forever. It is built to be drunk the way the grower intended at the moment of disgorgement.
An old bottle, sitting around in the shop or on a shelf, picks up a bitter edge in the finish. Not pleasant. That is why Joshua collects fresh stock every month, and why every bottle of his carries a disgorgement date on the back label. On today’s bottles: October 2024.
A practical tip if you spot a bottle somewhere: ask the importer or store when it was disgorged. If nobody knows, do not buy it.
Tasting the Jean-Laurent Blanc de Noirs
100% Pinot Noir. Five harvest years in the cuvée. Five years aged on the bottle. Disgorged October 2024. Serve at 9°C in a tulip glass.
The nose lands on ripe red fruit straight away. Red cherry, raspberry, strawberry, a touch of blackberry at the edges. Behind that sits spice. Tobacco, a thin curl of smoke. No oak, because this cuvée never saw a barrel. What you taste comes purely from the Pinot Noir and from the soil it grew in.
On the palate the wine is full and round. The bead is fine, the finish lingers. Not tiring, just inviting. This is the kind of Champagne you reach for in winter. With smoked fish, with game, or simply with an empty calendar and the right company.
Comparing it with the Jean-Laurent Blanc de Blancs
Same glass shape, two bottles side by side. The blanc de blancs is 100% Chardonnay and shows a lighter, straw-yellow color. The blanc de noirs leans toward white Burgundy in depth, while the blanc de blancs holds onto that crisp citrus-mineral line Champagne is known for.
The Chardonnay is floral. White flowers, lemon zest, a chalky tension on the tongue. There is also strength in there. Not a watery aperitif. The blanc de noirs is not more floral, it is richer and fuller. The blanc de blancs stays fresh.
Joshua drinks the blanc de noirs mostly when it is cold outside, and the blanc de blancs when it warms up. Both have their place, and together they explain why one grower with several cuvées tells a much bigger story than one entry-level bottle.
Where to start if you are new to Champagne
Do not start with a strongly opinionated cuvée. Pick something approachable with three grape varieties, from a small grower, aged long enough on the lees. You avoid the bitter finish and you keep the full, complex flavor.
Three rules Joshua keeps coming back to:
- Ask for the disgorgement date. No answer? No purchase.
- Serve cold, around 9°C, from a tulip glass instead of a flute.
- Celebrate the smaller moments. Football canceled on a Saturday morning? Champagne breakfast.
Two bottles from a small grower together cost roughly what one bottle of a big-name house costs at the local store. And you taste two different stories.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a small Champagne grower and a big house? A small grower usually works his own grapes, presses on site, and assembles his own cuvées. Joshua’s smallest partner produces around 20,000 bottles a year, his biggest around 200,000. Big-name houses run into the millions. The smaller scale tends to give more character per bottle and more story behind the label.
What is disgorgement? The moment yeast sediment is removed from the bottle after the second fermentation and lees aging are complete. The final cork goes on right after. The date tells you how fresh a Champagne is. The fresher, the closer to the grower’s intent.
What is the difference between blanc de blancs and blanc de noirs? Blanc de blancs is a white Champagne made entirely from white grapes, in practice almost always 100% Chardonnay. Blanc de noirs is a white Champagne made entirely from black grapes, usually Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier. Black-grape juice runs clear as long as the skins come off quickly.
How should I store Champagne after buying it? Cool, dark, undisturbed, and not for too long. A small-grower Champagne is best drunk within one to two years of disgorgement. Keep it cold and it stays in good shape until you find a reason to open it.
The bottles in this episode
Jean-Laurent Blanc de Noirs. 100% Pinot Noir, five harvest years in the cuvée, five years on the bottle, disgorged October 2024. Full, rich nose of red fruit and tobacco with a long finish. A winter Champagne. Available through Mijn Champagne Moment.
Jean-Laurent Blanc de Blancs. 100% Chardonnay from the same grower. Floral and mineral with backbone, fresher style. A spring Champagne. Also at Mijn Champagne Moment, and we tasted it earlier in Sparks episode 1.
More about Mijn Champagne Moment
Visit mijnchampagnemoment.nl for the full range. If you are at the start of your Champagne journey, call or email Joshua. If you have been tasting for a while and are hunting for the twenty-fifth cuvée you have not met yet, he can help with that too.
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