The Estate

The Champagne House André Robert is above all a family affair. The Robert family has been working the vineyards in Champagne for several generations.

Henri Robert (1881-1948) began working in the vineyards “en foule” (as a group) after the First World War. In the 1930s, he created the first association of winemakers to pool resources for pressing and winemaking.

Immediately after the Second World War, André Robert, born in 1925, worked the Champagne vineyards alongside horses. In 1960, he purchased the House which boasts marvelous 19th-century chalk cellars where our bottles currently rest. He began marketing his Champagne bottles in 1962. Immersed in the world of Champagne from a very young age,

Bertrand Robert took over the reins of the estate in 1981, accompanied by his wife Colette who joined the House in 1990.

In 2013, Claire Robert, the daughter of Bertrand and Colette, also joined the business. Bertrand gradually entrusts her with the management of the Domaine. Jean-Baptiste Denizart, her husband, returned to the Domaine in 2016. Since 2019, they both manage the entire operation together. The production is focused on crafting Grands Crus Champagnes, Blanc de Blancs from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.

“In summer my mother would leave me to play at the foot of a grape vine. I would play while she worked in the vineyard. This was my first contact with the land – I was aged 4-5.

1 cm to the right, 2cm to the left, a little further forward, just a little backward – STOP! My father would say. The barrels had to be perfectly aligned! This was the first contact with wood – that noble and living material.

See the shed in the middle of the vines? We used to eat there at lunch time. It would have taken us an hour on foot with the horse to go back home for lunch, said my grand-father.

These are some of the reasons behind my passion for the job”.

Bertrand Robert

Our vineyard is spread over 14 hectares, for the most part classified Grand Cru and Premier Cru plots.

We cultivate the 3 grape varieties : Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. But Chardonnay is the heart and soul of our estate and is the major share of all our blends. The Chardonnay is a fragile and delicate plant but contributes flowery, citric and mineral overtones to our blends making for elegant and racy wines.

The period of tasting the still wines stretches from the end of the harvest year until the end of May of the following year. It’s a particularly intriguing time. The wines move, change, evolve. Between pleasant surprises and disappointments, our minds gradually shape the harmony between the terroirs and the wines. Slowly, the outline takes shape, followed by a long period of waiting to discover the future champagnes.

It’s an opportunity to immerse ourselves each year a little more in the understanding of our Terroirs, of each of our plots.

It’s a chance to understand more about the influence of seasons, the power of the year on the grapes, our choices in vineyard management, and our selections during harvest.

It’s an opportunity to challenge our certainties and to always learn a little more about our wines. Our vinifications and blends have been dedicated in recent years to producing wines that truly reflect the terroir, the Lieux-dits, the soil, and even the subsoil.

“Les vignes de Montigny” is a cuvée made 100% from the village of Montigny sous Châtillon.

“Les Horizons” comes from the blending of our Chardonnay terroirs from the Cote des Blancs.

The cuvée “Les Jardins du Mesnil” is the unique expression of the overall terroir of Mesnil sur Oger, its plains, its mid-slopes, and its hilltops.

“Terre du Mesnil” originates from a specific year, a given vintage, the wines coming from the heart of the Mesnil sur Oger terroir.