Françoise Bedel’s Jouvence Millésimé is the estate’s vintage counterpart to its non-vintage cuvées, produced only in years where the quality of the harvest at Crouttes-sur-Marne justifies a single-vintage expression from the domaine’s biodynamically farmed Marne valley vineyards. The word ‘jouvence,’ translating as ‘rejuvenation’ or ‘the fountain of youth,’ reflects Bedel’s longstanding belief in the connection between the vitality of the living soil and the vitality of the wine it produces, a philosophy that has underpinned the domaine’s biodynamic approach since the early 1990s. A vintage wine from Bedel, produced from old-vine Pinot Meunier with complementary Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the estate’s specific parcels, receives extended lees ageing before disgorgement, providing autolytic depth alongside the primary character of the vintage.

The 2013 Champagne vintage was one of the most challenging of the modern era, with a cold, wet summer that delayed flowering, reduced yields dramatically and required exceptional patience and precision in the vineyard and the cellar. The finest growers who selected with extreme care produced wines of surprising quality from very small crops, combining the natural freshness and tension of a cool year with concentration provided by the reduced yields. A vintage Champagne from Bedel’s biodynamic estate in 2013 will reflect this austere, mineral-edged character of the year, with the estate’s extended lees ageing having softened the wine’s primary edges and added the complexity and depth of time under cork.

Vintage Champagne from Bedel occupies the most rarefied level of the estate’s production: a wine produced only in years of genuine quality, from biodynamically farmed vineyards, with the full expression of the estate’s terroir and philosophy concentrated in the single harvest rather than moderated by the blending of multiple years. The 2013, with its combination of the vintage’s cool freshness and the development of now more than a decade in bottle and barrel, is approaching the kind of mature complexity that the finest vintage grower Champagnes achieve only with patience.

Gold with a complex and evolved nose of dried apple, brioche, honey, lemon zest, chalk mineral and an earthy, biodynamic depth from the Marne valley limestone and clay. Medium-bodied with excellent natural acidity, a rich autolytic complexity from extended lees ageing and a long, bone-dry finish of considerable interest and character. Best now through 2032.