• While the fine bubbles should invade the holiday tables at the end of the year,

    20 Minutes

    went to meet a champagne winemaker, installed in Île-de-France.

  • Although he is part of a minority of champagne operators, Gauthier Bombart is not afraid to assert his belonging to the Paris region, which allows him to stand out.

  • Fifth generation to exploit the family vines, he perfectly embodies the mix between tradition and modernity, respect for ancestral practices and ambitious projects.

Gauthier Bombart proclaims it loud and clear: he is Seine-et-Marnais, Ile-de-France and a winegrower in Champagne.

He is the fifth generation to operate the family estate of Bombart champagnes, which extends over approximately five hectares between Saâcy-sur-Marne and Citry, entirely in the Île-de-France region.

“We are on the left bank of the Marne valley, to the far west, in two of the three villages that make up the Ile-de-France part of Champagne.

“A particularity that he claims:” We are one of the proud representatives of this small sector and we are 100% craftsmen.

We vinify our champagne ourselves.

»

Alongside his father, Hervé Bombart, for a few years, Gauthier, who finished his studies in 2020, has already started to imprint his mark on the eponymous champagnes, even if he is part of the continuity of his family heritage: “We tend to be more and more independent.

Today, approximately 65% ​​of the harvest is found in the bottles of the eight vintages labeled Bombart.

“My father is the first to release bottles in the family.

Before, our grapes were sold to champagne houses.

Our goal is that one day, we work 100% of our harvest on the estate.

»

Le meunier, the star of the grape varieties of this micro-terroir

Champagne covers three regions and five departments: Marne, Haute-Marne, Aube, Aisne and Seine-et-Marne.

“The fundamental terroir is mainly based on a limestone subsoil, which gives the vines their resilience, and in particular limits the negative effects in the event of drought.

And it also gives champagne its taste properties,” explains Gauthier Bombart.

The winemaker also cites the three main grape varieties, namely pinot noir, chardonnay and meunier.

Because it is important to remember: “Champagne is the culture of blending.

Once the grapes have been harvested, to make your champagne, it's as if you had a palette of colors with the three main ones, yellow, red and blue.

Getting the shades is all about mixing and dosing.

For champagne,

it's the same.

»

The Meunier grape is the majority in the vineyards of Île-de-France.

“It is found at around 70% on the Marne valley and 30% on the mountain of Reims.

On the other micro-terroirs, it is very little cultivated.

This grape variety, a priori derived from pinot noir from Burgundy, used to be called pinot meunier.

The reason ?

"The fine white particles on the surface of the leaves that make you think of flour", narrates Gauthier Bombart.

Over time, and because it is very different from pinot noir, it has become a variety in its own right and the term pinot has been removed.

The comic wink of the little story in the big one is that Gauthier Bombart's grandfather was… a miller!

“At the time, the champagne operators, my ancestors, could not afford to work 100% in the vines.

It was my father who was the first to devote himself entirely to it.

»

A family story

For Gauthier Bombart, working on the family champagne appellation has not always been obvious: “The vines, the tractors, unlike my brother, that didn't really appeal to me.

But for my ninth grade internship, my father sent me to the cooperative where at the time we worked our grapes.

I discovered a passion for wineries and cellars.

And finally, he orients himself in a journey to perpetuate the work of his great-great-grandparents.

“The oldest harvest declarations that we have found date from 1921, so that would mean that in our country, we planted the first vines just after the First World War.

That is from the beginnings of the champagne appellation, which dates back to the 1930s. “There has always been champagne in Seine-et-Marne”, assures the young winegrower.

But at the time, if this terroir respected all the established specifications, it was difficult to vinify your harvest yourself, the presses being located mainly around Reims and Epernay.

“Today, if the big houses still make the reputation of the appellation, the winegrowers now carve out a good part in champagne”, assures Gauthier Bombart, who was able to learn at the same time as his father how to vinify his grapes.

“We learned together how to handle wine.

Before, he was in a cooperative and he started five years ago.

I like this empirical learning: my favorite time of the year is when we taste the blends, when we validate our vinification bets.

»

Assembly, the recipe for happiness

"I measure the chance of arriving in the world of champagne at a time of openness, still shares Gauthier Bombart.

Before, it was "champagne, it comes from the Marne".

But today, attitudes are changing.

By producing its own bottles, the Bombart house is now turning to restaurants and wine merchants.

“It's important to be known and recognized in the profession,” adds the winemaker.

Father and son have also obtained certifications for sustainable development, a national certificate of high environmental value, and a certification specific to the champagne appellation of sustainable viticulture.

"It's a way of claiming practices that have been in place for years, of proving the common sense of the work done in our vines", he explains again.

Our file on champagne

Standard-bearer of this curious and uninhibited new generation, Gauthier Bombart already has several projects in mind, in particular that of not being confined to champagne.

“In the future, I would like to work with still wines, in white and red, from the Champagne hillsides.

I want to have fun, to create.

Working with wine is really my passion.

“He has also set up cheese and champagne pairings, enough to make any fan's mouth water: “With friends at the University of Reims, we had already launched the concept.

And I try with our cuvées, to offer champagne as a gastronomic wine.

Thus, to accompany roast poultry, the expert in bubbles bets on a blanc de noir champagne,

prefers a blanc de blanc with seafood and even agrees to drop a tip for champagne lovers for dessert.

“I didn't understand the point of offering a demi-sec champagne, which tastes very similar to a sweet wine, but my father convinced me, it's a product that works.

Audacious and avant-garde, but also attentive and respectful of traditions, Gauthier Bombart.

Like the champagne of Île-de-France.

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  • Ile-de-France

  • Champagne

  • Reims

  • Marl

  • Great East

  • Consumption

  • Paris

  • Christmas