Zoom event--Benoit Marguet of Champagne Marguet, Saturday June 13th @ 10am PT / 1pm ET

I was pleased to get the note today from Benoit that he wanted to do the Zoom with us. I had been asking him for a while, but I know he runs pretty busy and he’s also got a spirit about him that reminds me of someone who stays in the moment. I appreciate and in some ways admire that spontaneous spirit, a quality that I want people to experience when they meet Benoit for the event. So, it was a pleasant surprise to get his message today that he wanted to move ahead.

I visited Benoit back in May 2018, turned onto the wines previously by Scott and Greg at Envoyer. I had been drinking quite a bit of Marguet, and really fell for the 2012s. For some context, Benoit farms several lieux-dits in Ambonnay, where the winery is located–Le Parc, Les Crayeres, La Grande Ruelle and Les Bermonts and Les Saint Remys. He also contracts for fruit across several other villages, like Avize and Cramant in the Cote de Blancs, as well as Bouzy, Trepail, etc. Between all these cuvees, along with the Shaman cuvee, there is a lot to explore. Bernoit’s wines to me always show an energy, a vivid acidity and texture, in part because of his meticulous farming and approach.

For now, I am gonna keep this simple and post some photos from my May 2018 visit, along with the usual instructions below. Hope to see many of you on June 13th.

TO BE PART OF THE EVENT, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING. THANK YOU.

Date/Time: Saturday, June 13th @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 1900 Paris
Theme: If you own Marguet, open one. Or, you can choose to open another Champagne and enjoy the event.

How To Connect: To get the Zoom link to connect to the event, send a private message to Frank Murray III. I will then send you the link in a private reply. Once you receive the link, please do NOT forward it.

We’ll be muting everyone’s audio so we can eliminate background noise. You’ll also be optioned to turn on your camera if you like…just come to learn, share and be part of the fellowship we are creating.
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Frank,

I thought the Vouette et Sorbee zoom was going to be the grand finale of Champagne zooms. Glad to hear the series is continuing champagne.gif

Thank your for your work and dedication!

Jan

Jan, thank you. It wasn’t my intent to keep going but Benoit’s note, and my real passion for his wines, it made sense to give the WB community another event. Benoit makes some excellent wines so it made sense to do one more.

Zoom has become more widespread the past month, with wineries doing these events with other ITB folks, even dorks like some of us but overall, attendance has been declining. People want to get out, be with their families, friends, their community safely, and being inside is not the same priority or compulsion it once was.

Todd, Brad and I just wish everyone well as we try and find what a new, safe normal looks like.

Brad and I had a discussion with Benoit Marguet this morning about some options for his event on the 13th and he is looking forward to it. I don’t know how many of you have talked with or read up on Benoit but he is to me a fascinating guy. His beliefs about life, his location in what is one of the anchors of Champagne north–the village of Ambonnay–his thoughts about things beyond wine and how these influences and images are part of how he has built his winery, how he assesses his barrels for care/attention, etc.

While we will have some discussion too about farming, it is our goal to have Benoit reveal the spirit and humor that makes him who he truly is.

FWIW, he has done Zooms for UK and Japan, but nothing yet for the US, so I feel honored he is committing time for us.

Please PM me to get the link.

Happy we get at least one more session. These have been extraordinary and much appreciation for the 3 of you who have made this happen.

This should be a fun conversation and a very interesting session especially when compared to last weekend’s visit wtih Bertrand Gautherot. Benoit is also a believer in biodynamics and what some would call the ‘mystical energy of our planet and universe’. Like Bertrand, he is passionate and highly philosophical, yet the compete opposite in terms of personality. Benoit also pays more attention to the winemaking side of things. In general Benoit pays an immense amount of attention to every detail of everything that touches or influences the vines and wines. Whether you agree or disagree with some of the things he does, you cannot help but like him and enjoy being in his presence.

I have had a number of very thoughtful and eye opening conversations with him that have drifted off onto the mystical side of things yet seem to hold some truth if only someone could figure out the equation (something Bertrand touched on in his film, but not our visit). Benoit approaches the more mystical side of things by trying to find logic and reasoning behind them - he doesn’t just belive in them blindly. One conversation that I have had with him that sticks with me was on the topic of why some plots are unexplainably better than others. There are some plots in Champagne that year-after-year produce grapes that consistently turn out better than the surrounding plots even when the soil analysis says the plots are the same, the exposition is the same, and the farming practices are the same. In some cases, you can go back many, many centuries and discover that this particular piece of earth was marked as special, sacred, or ‘high energy’ and this often wasn’t in regards to farming. Someone knew something about the land that no one today seems to be able to explain, but it appears to hold true. I know it all sounds crazy, but if you can dig up a book or map from 1,000 years ago that has a marker on it that says a piece of land is special and to build something special on it and then it today it is planted to a vineyard that does better than it should, there could possibly be a connection. Or, it is just crazy luck. Fun stuff to think about though.

I’m a big believer that everything has a structure around it and is explainable, but I also believe that we don’t know everything and that there is still lots to discover. When we stop questioning and searching, we stop progressing.

Amen.

With the 10am PT start time and champagne, I believe this calls for some egg dishes.

Frank and Brad, with your posts you have me intrigued on this one. I will plan on listening in. Thanks to you both and Todd for making this stuff happen. I know it’s a lot of work, but I also sense that you guys love it. That is what it is all about, gentlemen!

Brad, thank you for framing out your experiences and views again. One thing I have learned about you, and I appreciate this part of who you are, is that you have a perspective that you are adept in narrating. You frame things with insight and you provoke thought…this is what I dig.

We also appreciate the thank you messages and posts–these mean a lot to me. We have done every one of these with an intent to apply care, effort and the opportunity to learn. We’ve created an archive of information that people can now view, to foster learning ahead.

As for Benoit and the event, I will continue to add visuals to the post here up through June 13th. I want to feature some of the vineyards and help promote some learning now, so that some of you who wish to do that with me, can get ahead of the event. With that…

Les Bermonts. Planted in 1952. It’s situated across the road from the village, on the others side of D19. It’s Chardonnay, and I find it unique that it doesn’t sit on the Ambonnay plane, on the north side of D19, but on the south side. Benoit uses wood for his elevage, which you will note below with the barrel head for Les Bermonts. You can also click the Weinlagen link below and get a sense as to the geography of Les Bermonts within the village (it’s arguably as close to Bouzy as it is to Ambonnay).

Weinlagen. (when this opens, switch to Satellite view to get a better sense of the vineyard)


Good morning. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought the past few days. I’ve wanted to wait in refreshing this topic, as we had some amazing work that Charlie had led in support of the NAACP. In thinking more this morning, I landed with doing something and trying to further the work Charlie has passionately led, and that so many of you supported.

Here is where I landed. My commitment is that for everyone that joins the Zoom this Saturday with Benoit Marguet, I will make a $5 donation per person to the NAACP LDF, the same charity that Charlie selected. If you come to the event with a bottle of Marguet open, I will double the donation $10. I want to confront the mixture of anger and helplessness I have felt this week, and perhaps this is the best way to do that. Should you want to match my donation, I encourage that, helping to push our help that much further.

Hopefully, this will motivate some more of you to give up some time on your Saturday morning to join Benoit Marguet and I, to learn about his wines, and in doing so, we can collectively take some additional action to give back right now and support for the African American community, to beat back injustice and inequality. We can all do something to show leadership, and if it can rest within our wine community, we can do our part.

PM me if you want the Zoom link for the event.

I had forgotten all about this, but PMd for a great event and an even better cause. Thanks, Frank.

Thank you, Sean. PM sent to you and Matt.

In the next few days, I will be back with some more photos and maps to get everyone ready.

As a side note, I know on 60 Minutes tonight in the US, the leader of the NAACP LDF was interviewed. I’m looking forward to watching that on my DVR, to get some more perspective on the action that is being sought and thought about on these issues.

I watched it earlier tonight, she was impressive.

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Good morning. In support of the event this weekend, some more photos. Le Parc is 100% Chardonnay, and the plot is situated adjacent to Krug’s walled off plot, Clos d’Ambonnay. In the photos above, you can see the wall that separates Le Parc from Krug’s wall. When we visited in 2018, I managed to boost myself onto the large wall and take a photo, which also is shown above.

Benoit doesn’t make much Le Parc, and my first bottle of it was the 2014 that he bottled in 750s. Like Le Parc, all of the Marguet lieux-dits come from the village of Ambonnay, which we will discuss with Benoit this Saturday.

As a reminder, I will be making the donation of $5 per person who to attend, with the money going to the NAACP LDF, and I will double the donation if you come to the event with a bottle of Marguet open.

If you would like the link, please PM me.

Frank,

Great idea to tie this in to even more giving. I hope we get a great turnout this coming Saturday - June 13th.

Really bummed I won’t be able to make this one. Thank you, Frank, for taking the organization reigns, once again! I’ll have to catch this one on replay.

Brad, today I got this photo below from Margaux over on Instagram. ‘Balance’…will have to explore that with Benoit this Saturday.

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In that case I plan to open 2 bottles champagne.gif

One last reminder for this Saturday, for those who haven’t signed on yet. And, this will be the final event I do unless Brad needs help with one, or we have another grower come forward and want to share their message. My donation commitment of $5 per attendee, doubled to $10 if you open a Marguet for the event, still stands in support of the NAACP LDF.

A few more photos to close my message…see you this Saturday, with Brad and Todd lending a strong hand.
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