Duval-Leroy
[2] Founded in 1859 when Edouard Leroy, a wine trader from the town of Villers-Franqueux, formed a partnership with Jules Duval, a grape-grower and winemaker from Vertus, Duval-Leroy comprises 200 hectares (490 acres) of vines under cultivation.
[1] A few years earlier, a still unofficial ranking of champagne crus had been released, establishing a hierarchy between villages and their terroir.
Higher quality champagnes, from highly rated areas could be sold for a premium price and insure him a faithful following of demanding customers.
Almost immediately, Raymond who had succeeded his father at the helm of the company, put on the market a new cuvee made exclusively from “premier crus”.
Gradually he achieved his goal of getting in his own hand a large enough vineyard to provide a reliable supply of high quality grapes.
[12] In 1985, as Jean Charles was getting ready to take his turn running the company, the French wine world was undergoing a revolution of sort.
He laid down the plans for modernizing the winery,[13] and started thinking about a new prestige cuvee, which in time would become "Femme de Champagne".
His widow, Carol Duval-Leroy, 35, was left with three young boys, Julien, Charles & Louis, aged eight, six and four, as well as a company to run.
[14] Days before he died, Jean Charles had her promise to take care of the company and keep it in the family hands until she could turn it over to their sons.
[20] Born in Uccle, near Brussels, in Belgium, from a Flemish father, and a French speaking mother,[15] Carol Nilens first met jean Charles when she was fifteen.
[21] In the meantime, Carol got a degree in economics, started a career in the real estate business, and traveled to Ibiza and Congo.
In September 1991 she threw a large party to mark the inauguration of the new winery,[10] a 70,000-square-foot and three-story-high facility on the edge of the village of Vertus.
[25] Eleven years later, in 2005, Sandrine Logette-Jardin, became head winemaker at Duval-Leroy, the first woman ever to hold such a position in the Champagne region.
[6] In 2013, Carol Duval-Leroy was named “most influential woman in Champagne” by the RVF, “Revue du Vin de France”.
Julien, the eldest is General Manager, Charles handles Communications and Marketing, Louis, the youngest is in charge of public relations.
[29] Edouard, a fourth son, born in 1981, from Jean Charles Duval-Leroy’s first marriage, has set up a wine and spirits import business in Shanghai.
The latest edition, which in Vertus on November 25, 2013 crowned young Maxime Brunet of the Chapeau Rouge restaurant in Dijon.
(ref – Le Chef, Décembre 2013) 82 candidates were present at the selection, organized at the beginning of April, and ten made it to the finals.
Since the beginning, environmental concerns and sustainable development have been at the forefront of the Duval Leroy grape growing and wine making philosophy.
[39] Above and Beyond a reasoned vineyard management, Duval-Leroy has developed a precise program of wine growing taking into consideration environmental and statutory constraints.
A green wall, comprising over 2500 plants, brings insulation from both heat and sound for this space, providing the cool and quiet necessary for quality wine making.
[42] As a result of its conscious approach to environmental issues Duval-Leroy became the first house of champagne to obtain the ISO 9002 certification back in 1994.
[45] The house of Duval-leroy produces vintage and non-vintage champagnes, in a range of styles going from "nature" (meaning zero dosage) to "dry" (25gr of sugar added per liter).
