Champagne village profile: Allemant in the Sézannais

Key facts

Located in subregion/area: Côte des Blancs / Sézannais
Vineyards and grape varieties: 65.3 hectares (161.4 acres), of which 59% Chardonnay, 34% Pinot Noir, and 7% Pinot Meunier.
Classification: “Autre cru” (87% and 85%).

Maps

The map is linked from Wikimedia Commons, and the geographical information originates from OpenStreetMap. The dotted white area corresponds to the vineyards, light yellow is other open terrain, orange is built-up areas, green indicates forest, and blue/purple is water and wetlands.

Google Maps view with the villages in the Sézannais highlighted.

Clicking on a village opens a field to the left with a link to the village profile, if it exists.

Neighbouring villages within the Champagne appellation

East: Broussy-le-Grand (part of the Val du Petit Morin area)
West: Broyes
Northwest: Mondement-Montgivroux (part of the Val du Petit Morin area)
Comment: some of the communes on the map are not part of the Champagne appellation and therefore don’t have any village profiles.

The church in Allemant, Église Saint-Remi, pictured in 1878. Picture linked from Wikimedia Commons.

The village

Allemant is located in the northeastern part of the Sézannais area, on rather flat ground.

The Allemant commune covers 1577 hectares and has 158 inhabitants (as of 2014) referred to as Allemantiots and Allemantiotes.

Vineyards

The vineyards in the Allemant commune is located immediately to the east and west of the village, on mild southwest- to southeast-facing slopes. Chardonnay is the most common grape variety.

The current vineyard surface in the Allemant commune is 65.3 hectares (161.4 acres). There are 38.4 ha Chardonnay (58.8%), 22.3 ha Pinot Noir (34.2%), and 4.6 ha Pinot Meunier (7.0%). Numbers from CIVC, as of 2013. In 1997, the vineyard surface was also 65 ha. There are 43 vineyard owners (exploitants) in the commune.

Higher rating for Chardonnay

On the now defunct échelle des crus scale, where 100% = grand cru, 90-99% = premier cru, and 80-89% = ”autre cru”,  a smaller number of villages were rated differently for white and black grapes, i.e., for Chardonnay (white) and for Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (black). The 12 villages in the Sézannais, including Allemant, were among these, with 87% for white grapes and 85% for black grapes, which in both cases meant ”autre cru”.

Single vineyard sites

Single vineyard sites in Allemant include Beauregard, Bezutelle, Le Grand Larry, and Les Granges, among others.

Champagne producers

Champagne houses/négociants

The producer status NM = négociant-manipulant means that purchased grapes can be included in the Champagnes. NM producers can be anything from small producers that supplement their own grapes with some that they buy in, to large Champagne houses that primarily rely on purchased grapes.

• Bernard Remy (NM), has 11 ha of vineyards. The range includes a vintage Champagne composed of 60% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Noir, and 15% Pinot Meunier.

Champagne growers

Producer status is indicated where known: RM = récoltant-manipulant, or grower-producers. RC = récoltant-coopérateur, growers that are cooperative members but sell Champagnes under their own name.

• Jérémy Breton (RC, Facebook page), has 2 ha of vineyards, of which 1 ha in the Sézannais, 0.6 ha in Congy, and 0.4 ha in the Vallée de la Marne.
• Jean-Pierre Delong
• Delong Marlène, a member of Vignerons Indépendants and the small grower organisation SECRAIE, with 5.3 ha of vineyards in Allemant, Broyes, and Sézanne with 60% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Meunier, and 10% Pinot Noir. The holding in Allemant includes the single vineyard sites Beauregard, Bezutelle, Le Grand Larry, and Les Granges.

Comment: the list may be incomplete.

Links

• Wikipedia about this village in English, in French.
• (The Allemant commune doesn’t have a website.)
• UMC’s village profile of Allemant.
• Vineyard map of Allemant at weinlagen-info.de.
• The Swedish version of this post.

© Tomas Eriksson 2017, last updated 2017-03-26