J-M Sélèque

Grower Champagne has become one of the most exciting and talked-about categories in the wine world in recent years, with precision, site specificity and attention to detail that bears more than a passing resemblance to our beloved Burgundy. This is Champagne with nuance and soul.  

Champagne J-M Sélèque is one of the most impressive producers we’ve come across.  

They’re based in the Côteaux Sud d’ Épernay, with 45 parcels, across 9 hectares, in 7 villages across the three major Champagne regions; Moussy, Épernay, Mardeuil, Dizy, Boursault, Vertus, and Pierry, where the winery is based. Their plantings are 50% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Meunier and 10% Pinot Noir. 

Jean-Marc Sélèque is the 3rd generation winemaker of the family, arriving back at the winery in 2008, aged 20, and now, alongside his wife Oriane they are taking the estate to new heights, including adding a new winery in 2015.  

The vineyards are mostly massal selection and are on average 40 years old. Since Jean-Marc’s arrival, the vineyards are mostly farmed organically and biodynamically, although they are deliberately not certified. He’s also introduced horse power in the vineyard, inter-row planting, and employs five permanent team members to manage the vineyards sensitively.  

The new winery is gravity-fed and fermentation takes place in a combination of cement eggs, amphorae, steel tanks and a range of barrels. Malolactic fermentation is determined by the vintage, but dosage and sulphur additions are always kept to a minimum. All wines are aged under crown cap. 

The first Sélèque to settle in Champagne was Henri Sélèque, Jean-Marc’s grandfather, who arrived to France from his native Poland in 1925. He married Françoise Bagnost, and planted vines in Moussy and Pierry, and his father-in-law Jean, who was director of the Pierry cooperative, helped him to produce and market his first wines. 

Henri and Françoise’s son Richard took a more academic route into wine, studying for a degree in oenology, and when he took over the family vineyards made great strides in modernising and improving their holdings and production equipment.  

Jean-Marc Sélèque, Richard’s son, arrived permanently at the domaine in 2008, following stages with Maison Chandon in Yarra Valley and in Napa. He returned with a solid technical background, but also an understanding of the limitations of a purely technological approach to winemaking. The JM Sélèque labels and branding draw heavily on the family’s passion for music, and Jean-Marc’s winemaking philosophy doesn’t seem unlike a musician balancing their classical training with an improvised freedom of expression.  

Solessence Extra Brut is the flagship non-vintage expression, elegant with a mouthwatering mineral clarity. They also bottle Solessence as a Brut Nature, and made an excellent savoury, musky Solessence rosé.  

The Solstise range is their opportunity to explore the key three single Champagne varieties from single plots in Pierry. 

Quintet meanwhile is 100% Chardonnay, from five parcels in Vertus, Dizy, Épernay, Mardeuil and Pierry. Partition is a tiny cuvée from the same parcels as Quintet, blended first. Gastronomic and incredibly complex, this has an immediate appeal with some warm, generous fruit, before layer upon layer of salty, mineral complexity. Jean-Marc sees Partition as their ‘souvenir of the vintage’ each year.