NV Francois Seconde Grand Cru Brut Champagne 750 ml

Champagne has its Grandes Marques—formidable brands that turn myriad growers’ grapes into the world’s best-known bubblies—and, until 2018, it had François Secondé. 

Secondé was the kind of founder/grower/winemaker whose life and work inspired loyalty among generations of wine-lovers, a refreshing relief from the corporate vineyard takeovers, homogenized winemaking, and jet-setting consultants who dominate the trades. He left school at the callow age of 14 in order to apprentice in the vines. He purchased his first vineyard in 1972, and in 1976 increased his holdings to three hectares—still just eight acres. Over the next four decades, François’ terroir had grown to 14 acres, two-thirds of which were planted to Pinot Noir. 

The village of Sillery, just outside of the Champagne capital of Reims, enjoys a reputation built over centuries. In the early 1600s, Henry IV’s chancellor, Nicolas Brûlart, owner of the Sillery Castle and vineyard, was able to get his wine in front of the king and his inner circle. The impact of this coup lasted for centuries, as Edme Béguillet, attorney to the parliament of Dijon and a notorious Champagne skeptic, admitted that Sillery wines were “so superior that only the king deserves them.”

The ancient endorsements of nobility makes for a good story, but have long since been supplanted in cachet to the Échelle des Crus, the “ladder of crus” that determines the quality and price of each village in Champagne. Sillery sits atop the ladder, commanding the same price as the villages whose names grace the most exclusive labels in the region. 

This stunning Brut, 2/3 Pinot Noir and 1/3 Chardonnay, is a tribute to François and his legacy. What a gorgeous wine.