Andre Jacquart

Brother and sister Benoit and Marie Doyard took over running the 23 hectare family estate back in 2004 and decided on a complete change of direction. They halved their annual production and concentrated on using the best fruit from the family’s premier and grand cru vineyards in Vertus and Le Mesnil.

To do this, they built a new winery in Vertus, investing in 200 barriques of two to six years in age, produced by four different coopers. The new Experience range, where all four wines undergo some oak fermentation, was launched in 2008. Mesnil Experience Grand Cru, based on the 2004 harvest, was quite linear and steely on initial release but after seven years ageing it has blossomed into something richer, more complex and aromatically expressive. GILES FALLOWFIELD