Laurent Champs
Champagne Program Consultant

Laurent Champs collaborates on Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard’s production of Kluge SP, a blanc de blancs made in the méthode traditionnelle, as well as Kluge SP Rosé. Champs is also consulting on the introduction of the winery’s first blanc de noirs, to be released in 2007.

Champs is owner and Champagne Master of Vilmart & Cie, an independent, estate-based Champagne house located in the village of Rilly in Montagne de Reims. Vilmart has gained cult status among Champagne aficionados, and the house owes part of this success to Champs, who took over for his father, René Champs, in 1990.

Before taking the reins at Vilmart, Champs trained in the vineyards and wineries of several Champagne houses, including Charles Heidseick, and in Bordeaux. He received his Superior Certificate of Oenology and Viticulture in 1989 from the University of Champagne in Avize.

At Vilmart, Champs introduced the practice of new oak barrel ageing for their top cuvees and implemented labor-intensive biodynamic vineyard methods. As a result, Vilmart's primarily chardonnay champagnes cultivated the admiring attention of the international wine press and export markets.

Champs was drawn to Virginia, and to Kluge Estate especially, because of its potential to make outstanding méthode champenoise wines. The estate’s microclimate on the southeast slope of Carter’s Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains range in Albemarle County fosters ideal conditions for chardonnay and pinot noir grape production. Champs explains, “I make wine first and bubbles second. I like to work with what nature gives me.”