Ageing on the lees

The bottles are then taken down to the cellars and laid down horizontally in piles - "sur lattes" as we say in the region.
Dug out of the chalk in the 18th century, the cellars of the AR Lenoble Champagne House offer ideal conditions for ageing wines, in terms of temperature (constant all year round) and humidity.

The minimum duration of ageing in bottles required by the regulations in Champagne is 15 months for a non-vintage and 3 years for a vintage wine. Before it can be sold, each cuvée is tasted to check its organoleptic qualities and it must earn the approval of the INAO (Institut National des Appellations d'Origine).

The yeast added on bottling leads to a secondary alcoholic fermentation. This transformation of the sugar increases alcohol content and releases carbon dioxide. This process lasts about a month and makes the wine effervescent. During this time, the pressure in the bottle increases to 6 kg/cm2.

"Give it time!"
is the philosophy of the AR Lenoble Champagne House

This is why our wines are kept in the cellars longer than demanded by the regulations, in order to bring out the very best of the aromas:
- The Brut Intense and Brut Nature cuvées age on the lees for 2 to 3 years,
- The Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs needs 4 or 5 years in the cellar to reach maturity,
- The vintage champagnes require at least six years to achieve their fullest expression.

As for the very old vintages which are preciously guarded in the wine library, some of them have had to wait 20 years for the Chardonnay to reveal all its subtlety!

It is during this long ageing process that the stapled cork method really makes all the difference. The moisture in the atmosphere of the cellars makes the cork porous and enables exchanges between the wine and the external environment - exchanges that are impossible when the bottle is sealed with a totally airtight metal capsule. This exchange causes a very particular kind of oxidation of the wine and an ideal ageing process.
This is one of the secrets of the Cuvée “Les Aventures”, a real gem of a wine.