Ledru - Ambonnay

Ambonnay is Pinot Noir country, all about power and weight and fruit. Intense and rich, with macerated red fruit flavours, strawberries and maybe cherries. If I had to choose one quick throw away line for describing great Ambonnay it would be “glace cherries”! Ambonnay is not an aperitif style Champagne, start thinking about tuna, barramundi, quail, chicken, veal. Good Ambonnay has the richness and the acid edge to cut thru the richer foods, and….. the length on the palate is to die for!! Ambonnay is the favourite Pinot Noir village of Krug and justifiably so.  Pinot Noir from neighbouring Bouzy can be rich, smoky and often a little too fat and clumsy. Verzy and Verzenay are broad and powerful and may lack a little finesse. Ay Pinot is majestic and powerful but can exhibit less red fruit characters in favour of white stone fruits. Only Ambonnay offers a unique balance of power, fruit, minerality and finesse which are the hallmarks of  great Champagne.

With vineyards in Ambonnay(85% as Pinot Noir) and Bouzy(15% as Chardonnay) in the south of Montagne de Reims, Marie-Noelle Ledru is a rare breed of female vigneron. As a civil servant, she inherited the property from her parents who retired in 1984. The philosophy is to use no insecticide, and if treatments are necessary, only environment friendly options are considered. She works on her own generally, doing all the paper work, vineyard work, bottling, packaging and marketing. Not that there is much time for marketing. She has no website – there is no need – people find her and everything is sold out!

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir span Ambonnay and Bouzy, with Chardonnay having an average age of 40 years.  The style is vinous with Pinot Noir at least 85% always dominating. The wines have body and structure to support cellar ageing. Any passionate Champagne amateur who likes great vinous Ambonnay can only fall in love with the wines from Marie-Noëlle.  She makes no concessions to the modern style of today, she allows the rich terroir to speak for itself.

Michael Edwards from the ‘Finest Wines of Champagne’ says ‘Imagine one’s delight, then, on discovering an Ambonnay producer who quietly makes a range of immaculate Champagnes in a robust gourmand style that faithfully reflects the terroir, ages beautifully, and is very reasonably priced’.