Every Friday TheChampagneSommelier will ask 5 questions about 5 coeur de bouteilles to friends and Champagne lovers from near and far. This Week we took a bubbly chat with Florent Mignon, winegrower, in Cramant. Merci Florent!
BIO
Florent Mignon
I’m Florent Mignon, winegrower with my brother in the côte des Blancs, in Cramant. We took over the exploitation in 2014 from our parents, but they used to work through a cooperative and since we love wine and also because we have beautiful terroirs (Avize, Cramant, Cuis, Cumières & Damery) we decided to build our own winery and we did it! Our first harvest was 2016!
Which Champagne would You treat your parents or in-laws?
‘I would do some of my friends’ champagne. For my parents I would get « l’Eté » from Champagne Paul Gosset, on a beautiful terroir of Aÿ, my favorite from him!
For my mother in law, I would get Champagne Antoine Bouvet with a rosé de saignée because she met him and I think when you know the winegrower, the champagne is even better. And anyway Rosé de saignée from Antoine are stunning!’
Which Champagne would You treat your lover?
‘My wife was not used to drink champagne, she is from Dallas, Tx and now she has a good palate with all the tasting she’s doing with me. And she prefers champagne with freshness, and so I think the Petit Meslier from Champagne Laherte is a really good choice for her.‘
Which Champagne would You treat your boss?
‘I guess we can say my brother instead of my boss, I would treat him with a champagne from 2021 when it will be released because it’s the year of his daughter. And for this occasion I would treat him when it will be available, « Les robarts » from Aurélien Suenen.‘
Which Champagne would You treat yourself?
‘If I have to order a bottle to a restaurant, I really enjoyed to do a blind tasting and try to find what it is! In this way you can taste things that you wouldn’t if you see the label, and it’s just so interesting. But if it’s my turn to choose the bottle for the blind tasting, I would get l’opiniâtre from Champagne Mouzon-Leroux.‘
Which Champagne would You treat a dream guest, and why, and who’s is Your dream guest?
To stay in the wine world, I would really enjoy to have Pierre Overnoy as a guest. I did an Overnoy tasting with different vintages and wooo, it was just amazing, I’m a big fan, even more on the white. So I think I would bring him one of our cuvée just to ask him, what do you think, what could we do/ change to be better. It’s not ready yet of course but I would bring him Les Nogers 2020, a blanc de blancs from the terroir of Cuis and it’s the first one we made without added sulfite.
What piece of music would you listen to drinking wine in question 5 ? ]
‘Well, I think it’s so much better to share champagne with friends so I can remember a couple nights where we were all around singing « Les copains d’abord » (Friends first) from Georges Brassens. That’s definitely the good moments of the life. Wine food friends.‘
