Douwe of Vindeux on Artisanal Champagne

A bottle from Claude Michel in Boursault, with a label that promises 450 months of aging. That would be thirty-seven years. The math doesn’t work, and Douwe of Vindeux laughs it off before opening the Cuvée Flore. One typo, one family, one champagne worth the time.

In this episode of Sparks I talk with Douwe about Vindeux, the subscription model he has run with his girlfriend Ellen since 2022. One grower champagne each month from a producer who hasn’t entered the Dutch market yet. No safety net of well-known houses, just the discovery of Récoltant-Manipulants in villages most travellers drive past.

Who is Douwe

Douwe started Vindeux in 2022 together with his girlfriend Ellen. The name is wordplay: “vin” for wine, “deux” because there are two of them and because you can find the French “vingt-deux” in it, the year they launched. The idea came after a trip through the Champagne region, where the number of producers overwhelmed them.

“In some villages already 40 or 50. If you add them all up, there are about 1,500 producers. We thought we could pick out nice producers and create a kind of surprise effect.”

Vindeux is not a classic importer. Each month Douwe picks a producer who does something special, often part of the process by hand, or one with a family story worth telling. That choice follows a fair amount of desk research.

What you learn in this episode

• How a champagne subscription works and why champagne is a safer category for a surprise box than still wine
• Why Douwe deliberately chooses Récoltant-Manipulants not yet launched in the Netherlands
• What remuage and disgorgement are, and the difference between hand work and the gyropalette
• Why the missing taste gain of hand work matters less than the story that ships with the bottle
• How the Vindeux lock-in works in reverse compared with the big brands
• What goes into the Cuvée Flore from Claude Michel and why the label carries a typo

In the glass

The Cuvée Flore from Claude Michel is an assemblage of 45% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Meunier. Four to five years on the lees, not the 450 months the label claims. The mousse is fine and elegant.

On the nose, white fruit, peach, strawberry, a touch of flower and grapefruit. Underneath, toast and bread dough from the aging. On the palate it is tight, with fresh acidity but not too much; round, elegant, with a long finish that keeps coming. Everything you smell, you taste back. A chalky tension that gives the Vallée de la Marne its signature.

Frequently asked questions

How does the Vindeux champagne subscription work?

You enter a subscription you can cancel monthly and pay €38.95 for one bottle or around €65.95 for two. Each month you receive a grower champagne from a producer not yet on the Dutch market, with a flyer about the wine house and the champagne included.

Why does Vindeux focus on champagne and not still wine?

With a wine box you can get a style miles from your palate, for instance a heavy red instead of a light one. With champagne that difference is more nuanced. You always know you can get quality wine, while every maker puts their own stamp on the bottle.

What is the difference between remuage by hand and with the gyropalette?

In remuage the bottles are turned so the yeast sediment sinks to the neck. It used to be done by hand in a pupitre; now it is often done with a gyropalette that works faster and more accurately. Douwe doubts the hand work shows up in the taste, but it preserves a craft and it gives you a story.

What happens if you fall in love with one specific bottle?

You may find the stock is already gone. Sometimes a few bottles go to the webshop, but not always. That is not a bug, it is the design: the subscription is a journey of discovery, not a standing order.

Listen on your own podcast platform

Prefer Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast or another app? Search for “Sparks by VinoVonk” in your favourite podcast app and you will find this episode there.

Disclosure: Vindeux provided a bottle for this episode. All tasting notes are my own independent assessment.