Champagne Néret Vély
The Néret family is a real UFO in the Champagne landscape. And for good reason: in the 1980s, the Néret family were dairy farmers and accountants!
But the desire was there and, little by little, the family built up a vineyard with little means but an enormous amount of work. It is with great pride that Carole Néret took over the reins of the business founded by her parents.
Today, she produces champagnes that reflect the family's image and history: atypical and with a strong personality, but always for your greatest pleasure.
The origins of Néret Vély champagne
Originally, nothing predestined the Néret family to be involved in the champagne world, apart from a tiny piece of 20-acre vines inherited by Carole Néret's mother.
The end of the 1980's was a good time for the Champagne vineyard which was expanding rapidly. New lands were cleared to expand the cultivated area of the PDO as the number of wine enthusiasts around the world was growing. At the time, Carole's father was a dairy farmer in Vauchamps, on the Champagne plain, while her mother worked as an accountant. But the desire was there and together the Néret couple embarked on this crazy adventure. The challenge was even greater as the family did not have the experience of previous winegrowing generations. They had to build everything by themselves with small means and perseverance.
From the outset, the Néret family wanted to make their own wines and therefore decided to leave the cooperative that had been running the 20 ares of vines inherited by Carole's mother. However, in order to create a wine estate ex nihilo, one needs much more than a few vines. So they took over the family vineyards on lease, bought woods in the appellation area, cleared them and worked the soil without counting the hours or the effort.
The results are there for those who had never made wine before. Within ten years, the vineyard of the Néret Vély champagne has grown from 20 ares to 5.5 hectares!
A range of surprising champagnes
In 1985, Néret Vély champagne produced its first bottles with a confidential selection of cuvées. The objective was ambitious. At that time, the family had to self-finance all the investments made to launch a wine estate from scratch, and to do so, they had to confront the banks more than once with their choice. In the end, all these efforts paid off and the ideal production of 40,000 bottles per year was reached.
Today, the house is experimenting with new ways of taking care of a terroir that is not ideally structured. Among the various innovations implemented by the family, none is more visible than the use of horses for part of the ploughing. This traditional method allows to better aerate the soil than a mechanical work with a tractor. This long process of creating and maintaining a vineyard also involves perfecting the wine-making process. The family sought the help of oenologists such as Sébastien Goulard, Georges Blanck and Franck Wolfe to revisit their blends in a different way. This is how the current range of Néret Vély champagne was born, mixing specialities of vinification and confidential mono-varieties to the classic champagne offer.