Thibault Legrand is the third generation of his family to grow grapes in Fleury-la-Rivière. For years most of the fruit went to the co-op. Thibault’s father, Patrice, was a fossil hunter at heart. What started as a hobby in 2004 became a full-blown obsession that eventually led to the creation of a hand-carved, mile-long cave dug 300 meters into the hillside. Today, it’s a museum, La Cave aux Coquillages, dedicated to preserving and showcasing sea creatures from 45 million years ago, back when the Paris Basin was still underwater during the Lutetian period. It’s quite the Champagne cellar, blending geology, paleontology, and wine under one roof!

Thibault, inspired by his childhood friend Flavien Nowack, eventually took over the family estate and decided to chart a new path. He converted the vineyards to organic farming, then went fully biodynamic a while later, a shift that completely transformed the land and the wines. His approach in the cellar is just as thoughtful. Taking inspiration from his father’s passion for the past, Thibault doesn't organize his wines by grape variety, but by the geological age of the soils they grow in.

In the cellar, he keeps things simple. Fermentation happens in barrel with native yeasts, sulfur is used sparingly (only when necessary), and nothing is pumped as everything moves by gravity. Thibault also takes an unconventional approach to secondary fermentation. Starting with the 2020 vintage, he adopted the “Agrapart Method”. Here, fresh, unfrozen juice from the following year is used for the ‘prise de mousse’. This approach is not only the way to achieve a Champagne of 100% pure juice, but it also adds no alcohol to the wine, unlike traditional sugar mixture additions. This means Thibault can pick at true phenolic ripeness in the vineyard without fear of elevated alcohol. Proper vinous stuff.


Once bottled, the wines are aged for 30 to 40 months on cork in his cool, humidity-controlled caves! Evolving patiently in the same underground cave as all those ancient seashells.