This essay was originally published on the newsletter Amuse-Bouche and has been adapted for The Unicorn Review.

Driving south through the French countryside, there is a moment when the landscape of Champagne seems to empty out. It happens suddenly—beyond the manicured estates of Reims with their wrought-iron gates open to tourists, past fields of tall grass etched with paths for hikers, a more unadorned Champagne begins to reveal itself.

It’s here, in the Côte des Bar, with its white Kimmeridgian soils and sun-drenched slopes, that the winemakers of southern Champagne are blending tradition and innovation to craft some of the region’s most exciting and timeless cuvées. I arrive at my destination, Champagne Fleury, just after mid-day, where a red-headed woman named Emmanuel Dewitte is waiting for me with a small group.

Champagne Fleury, on the outskirts of Aube in Courteron, was originally founded in 1895. Less than 100 years later, in 1989, Fleury became the first biodynamic producer in Champagne when third-generation winemaker Jean-Pierre Fleury took over the estate. By 1992, its entire 15 hectares had been converted to use biodynamic practices.

Today, Champagne Fleury is helmed by the fourth generation of Fleurys—siblings Jean-Sebastien (head winemaker), Morgane (chief brand ambassador), and Benoît (head viticulturist). Together, they continue to make wines that are bright, mineral-driven, and surprisingly age-worthy, paying homage in every detail of their work to the legacy of their family and region.

Emmanuel does sales for the domaine and is one of the few employees who is not a member of the Fleury family. Upon my arrival, she takes us to a large barn made of worn wood, where the wines are pressed and fermented in steel and oak. It’s their functioning cellar, but it also serves as a shrine to their biodynamic history. On the wall are posters depicting the philosophies and science of Rudolph Steiner, founder of the biodynamic winemaking movement, next to moon-phase calendars and zodiac charts. Shelves are lined with models of soil and cow horns, which are used in one of the more arcane biodynamic preparations. In the center is a small hand press, which relies on gravity to drain fresh juice into large tanks in the cellar below.

With a new appreciation for Fleury’s approach to winemaking, we were led to a third outbuilding where bottles are meticulously stored and aged. Behind new oak facades and a door with a handle modeled after a cow horn, hundreds of bottles of Champagne lie in repose, organized by vintage and dating back to their first biodynamic harvest in 1989. Emmanuel tells us the room was designed to feel like you’re uncovering treasure, and it does. Inside it was damp and dark, but it glowed with a warm, artificial light that felt like sunrise. On one end, a moon calendar was carved into the wall; on the other, a giant golden spiral. 

Above us on a second floor balcony was a gallery of casks and barrels, some of which held reserve wine from vintages dating back to 2007. Champagne Fleury is meticulous when it comes to aging their wines. Each cuvée is made only from first press juice and spends between five and 12 years on the lees, far exceeding the region’s minimum three. This gives the wines an enduring stability and prolonged youth, which becomes evident during our tasting. In the cellar, along with disgorged wines dating back to the early ‘90s, you'll find bottles sealed with traditional corks de tirage undergoing their second fermentation.

Emmanuel leads us through a tasting of six cuvées, including blends, vintages, blanc de noirs, and blanc de blancs. Even their Ratafia makes an appearance, a regional sweet wine made from third-press grape must and fortified with distilled spirit, which was sweet and pure like juice. Their non-vintage brut nature, Fleur de L'Europe, is blended to align with the domaine’s inaugural biodynamic vintage. The current disgorgement is based on the 2017 harvest, with the perpetual reserve of Pinot Noir accounting for 40 percent of the final blend. It was bottled for secondary fermentation in July 2018 and disgorged in July 2023 with no dosage. It’s intended to be opened within three to five years, but its vibrant acidity, stonefruit-forward palate, and stoney minerality, as well as the time it spends on the lees, suggests that it will mellow out nicely with time.

There was evidence in all the wines we tasted that Fleury’s Champagnes do, in fact, cellar well. My personal favorite, the Millésime 2010, is a blend of 80 percent Pinot Noir and 20 percent Chardonnay from 20-year-old vines. Fermented in old oak and bottled in 2011, it rested on the lees for 12 years before being disgorged in January 2023. For a nearly 15-year-old wine, it’s surprisingly youthful, with playful acidity that comes across in notes of  lemon peel, green apple, and tangy yogurt.

Flinty and saline, the unique terroir of the Côte des Bar is expressed in the minerality of the cuvée. The wine has a certain precociousness—toasty, nutty tones, aromas of baked brioche and honeycomb, and a creaminess that coats the mouth. Emmanuel suggested that it could cellar for another seven to 10 years after disgorgement. The NV Rosé de Saignée Brut (an Extra Brut) showed similar youth with a scent of strawberry preserves. On the palate, it’s tart yet sweet with notes of pomegranate and cranberry, underpinned by that trademark stoney, salty minerality that defines all of Fleury’s cuvées. 

Perhaps it’s the salinity—the honeysuckle, sea salt, and sweet berries—that brings me back to the summers I spent on Cape Cod as a kid. Each wine, some with seven, 10, or 15 years of age, still expressed its youth beautifully. And that’s the power of a good wine—one that evokes memories, and can transport you through time.