Lucy Edwards
- Aug 12, 2020
- 2 min read

Three Words of Wisdom from François Huré

On the 19th of June, we were joined for an online tasting by Champagne Rockstar François Huré, of Huré Frères. We were lucky eough to taste three of his cuvees including his Invitation Brut NV, Insouciance Rose NV, and Blanc de blancs 2015 vintage.

He had many interesting points of view to share with viewers tuning in from all over the world.

1. The terroir of Ludes creates super clean and elegant pinot noir and meunier

Huré Frères is located in the village of Ludes in the Montagne de Reims. The village is north facing, which means cooler climate and a slightly higher acidity than the other villages of the region. This means the picking date is one week behind the village of Avize which is further south but north facing. Ludes is also a village with a huge proportion of sand in the soil (up to 55%), which makes it a very soft and free draining soil. This soil is perfect to produce very clean, elegant and fresh style of meunier, which makes up 40% of their vineyards.

2. Champagne rose is best served with breakfast

François enjoys rose which is delicate, uplifted and with good salinity. Basically when it makes him thirsty. This means it is the perfect breakfast of champions and goes beautifully with eggs and bacon on the BBQ. François shares some of his best memories from his time working in the Yarra Valley and sharing champagne with James Halliday on Easter weekend.

3. The concept of vintage is neglected in Champagne

Francois believes that there is beauty is every vintage and that we are missing out when a winemaker decides to not create a single vintage wine every year. Most of the large houses only declare a vintage in the best of years, whereas Francois creates a vintage every year as a snapshot, and reflects the spirit of the year. He wants to move away from the concept of good and bad vintages. Every vintage has a story to tell.