Ponson La Petite Montagne Champagne

Maxime Ponson just makes one wine “La Petite Montagne” and he just makes around 500 cases/year in total. The vineyard work is pretty amazing, not only because the vines are all farmed organically (in conversion for certification), but because it is made from 26 tiny parcels that make up just 1.2 hectares. Max farms his neighbors vines for two rows on either side of every one of his tiny parcels to keep their chemicals away from his vines. Fermentation happens naturally, but with a selection of grapes picked from his vineyards before harvest each year he makes a tiny amount of wine that starts fermenting naturally, and he adds a small amount of sulfites to that wine to kill off bad yeast, and then he adds a tiny amount of that already fermenting wine to each of his tanks of freshly pressed juice to jumpstart their fermentations. Max believes the process aids in keeping the perfume of the Pinot Meunier. The “Petite Montagne” is a very special and up and coming place in Champagne, especially for Pinot Meunier. Many of the best Pinot Meunier based wines Champagne now come from the Petite Montagne. (Prevost, Brochet, Lurquin, Faneuil, and even Egly Ouriet’s Pinot Meunier). Ponson’s delicious wine is still a great value among his more famous neighbors.