2018 Gonde Rousseaux Au Nom de la Mere Chapter 2 Blanc de Noir Champagne 750 ml

When Edith Gondé decided to retire in 2013, her son Florian had options. He could have gone abroad. He could have pursued better money elsewhere. Instead, he came home to Taissy, a Premier Cru village at the foot of the Montagne de Reims, and rolled up his sleeves.

That decision produced this wine. "Au Nom de la Mère"—on behalf of the mother—is Florian's Blanc de Noirs, and it's about as personal as a bottle of Champagne can get. Made from Meunier and Pinot Noir grown on a single block of chalky plots on the north-northeast flank of Taissy, it's his most direct expression of the terroir his family has farmed for generations. At fewer than 1,200 bottles, it's also one of the rarest things we've had the chance to offer.

Florian is a self-taught winemaker—a self-described geek who came to viticulture sideways, through curiosity and a restless need to figure things out. Before wine, there were motorcycles, horse racing, and a deep suspicion of authority. What he brought into the cellar was an experimentalist's mindset and an outsider's willingness to question everything.

He farms biodynamically, using homemade compost, herbal preparations, and lunar cycles to tend his vines—a practice that appeals to him not just agronomically but philosophically. In the cellar, he intervenes as little as possible. No sulfites are added. Grapes are hand-harvested in the morning to preserve freshness, pressed gently, and fermented with indigenous yeasts before aging on the lees for up to three years—a patient maturation that builds the kind of depth and texture you don't often find at this scale.

The 2018 harvest gave him exceptional raw material. A warm, dry summer following a wet winter produced one of the most abundant and healthy harvests the region had seen in decades. The Montagne de Reims was particularly well suited to those conditions, with the Pinot Noir and Meunier achieving a level of ripeness and phenolic maturity that's rare in Champagne, while the chalk beneath the vines kept the wines bright and fresh.

Florian may have come home to honor his mother. But this wine stands entirely on its own.