George Laval

This is Vincent Laval, George Laval was the dad
the current generation and owner of this wine label

it was an honor to meet the man himself live in flesh...hehehehehehe
JS lurves to refer him as "The Artist"...indeed he is

It was easy to locate his home bcoz another friend visited him a week ago and gave us notice on his no-nonsense home with no signage. Just a wooden garage door shut.

I guess artisanal winemakers don't really need to shout about their business by using huge billboard to announce their location.

When we arrived, we were shown the types of roots his vine has got to better understand his terroir. So u see each plot of land is different from the rest...even if it means just next door.

Those are really huge and deep roots stretching a few metres deep
According to Laval, a flat root like the one on the left is a lazy ones...bcoz it didn't need to dig deep in search of minerals and nutrients. One must make his roots work harder and dig deep to absorb all the minerals.


Next we were lead deep down into his cellar for tasting
:))))))))))))
It was a very quiet morning at his property and we were the only souls making lots of noise.


The production of his champagnes are sooo limited and as usual everything has been pre-sold
These are the little gems that not many ppl know

What happen to u must share good things with friends??
bcoz stocks and allocation is super limited the only time we can share with friends is when we open one.



Laval makes all his champagnes naturally......100%
with no interference it's really biologique bcoz it is only by the method that u retain its aromas and flavours. At the same time, it respect and preserve nature.
Give back to nature what u take. :))))))))

deep in my own lil journey

it begins with the aroma....of fruits in many dimension before u realized it evolved over the period of time. As the temperature climbs when u hold the glass, it bcame more and more pronounced. So if you don't want to "heat" your drinks, please only hold the base.

Laval shared his wonderful and also painful stories
years when vignerons or winegrowers suffered due to bad weather and harvest.

That's the downside about vignerons, if it's a good year.....it's really really FANTASTIC
but when the vintage is bad, it shows too. So if you depends on mother nature, with no interference at all, 100% nature, there's still a price to pay. This is also when they sell off all their grapes to BIG champagne houses. Coz these houses does blending to achieve the desired results.

I guess blending for vignerons is like poison

hahahahahahaha

Me in my mischievous look

JS looked at me in horror and said under his breathe
JS: "MONKEY........You.....Don't......Touch.......Anything" while continued to grind his set of teeth.

Heheheheheheeeeeeee
it's a domino effect, coz if I push one stack, it will fall on to the next and the next and the next
let's not even imagine the damage

I guess in the future all winemakers need to keep their treasures locked with bars to avoid visitors like Monkey....well just in case.

I think he's begging me to behave
:P
hehehehehehehe ok ok ok ok

Laval is truly a wine artist. He spoke with passion on his land, his grapes how they showed its terroir. Laval also believes in music, bcoz all his wines need to be entertained.
*well just like how u talk to your plants*
gave it the aromatic expression one can't describe but must be in the journey to understand and enjoy it.

Laval almost didn't have much machinery except for this presser
which gently press the grapes to release its juice. He only use very very small dosage of sulfur.

I can't imagine everything was so taxing and the amount of work...when one goes 100% natural.
even from the works at the vineyard...grapes were hand picked, soil were plow by animals...not machines. There's alwiz reason on this....the machines are heavy and its tyres compress the soil and thus preventing water from seeping in. As compared to animals' foot, animals are much much gentler...Laval joked that only thing is u need to feed them well...hahahahaha.

With a production of no more than 10,000 a year, u can be rest assured of quality and taste.
but most of all, you experience Laval's passion everytime u sip his single vineyard champagnes.

After the visit, we took our bows with even higher respect for this man.
:))))))))))))