Meunier

Identity

Meunier is Champagne's third man, after Chardonnay and Pinot Noir — and far from a footnote: it covers roughly 31% of the region's plantings, more than Chardonnay in some corners of the Marne valley. Its name comes from the whitish, floury down covering the underside of its young leaves, as if dusted with flour, a nod to the miller's trade.

Small bunches, vigorous growth kept in check by moderate cropping: Meunier makes a blending grape, rarely vinified alone, that lends Champagne immediate fruit and a suppleness that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir don't offer to the same degree in their youth.

History and origin

Meunier belongs to the Pinot family. The Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC, no. 9278) states its parentage as a Pinot Noir mutation, confirmed by genetic markers: not a cross between two distinct varieties, but a variation that arose on a single vine, as with this corpus's Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. That mutation bears in particular on hairiness — the downy underside that sets its young leaves apart from Pinot Noir's, and gives the grape its name.

The VIVC records 80 synonyms for the variety, evidence of a long-standing spread across central Europe: Müllerrebe and Schwarzriesling in Germany, where it is still planted outside any sparkling-wine use.

In the vineyard

According to the Pl@ntGrape datasheet (no. 166, consulted in session), Meunier buds three days after Chasselas, the reference variety, and ripens as early as the first period, a mere half-week after it: an early grape at every stage of its cycle, more so than an earlier estimate had suggested. Its vigour stays moderate, with a marked tendency to throw suckers and laterals, which calls for careful summer pruning.

It shows low susceptibility to excoriosis, powdery mildew and downy mildew, but remains exposed to grape berry moths and grey rot. Its winter frost resistance is good, and it recovers fruitfulness after a spring frost better than Pinot Noir does — a real advantage on the more exposed valley floors of the Marne. It adapts well to calcareous soils without suffering from chlorosis.

In the glass

Pale colour once pressed and vinified as a blanc de noirs, as almost all of its use requires. On the nose, red fruit leads: cherry, strawberry, raspberry, rounded out by a touch of green apple and pear that echoes its kinship with Chardonnay in the blend. Lees ageing, practised as for Champagne's other varieties, adds brioche and yeast.

On the palate acidity stays medium (3 to 4), tannin and body discreet (1 to 2), alcohol contained (2 to 3): Meunier is not after structure, but immediate roundness. With time a note of damp earth can appear, though the variety is not built for any ageing potential of its own.

Great terroirs

Champagne is where most of it is planted: the appellation's rules classify it among the "principal varieties," alongside Arbane, Chardonnay, Chardonnay Rose, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. It is especially prominent in the Marne valley, where its relative resistance to spring frost makes it a favourite among growers on the valley floor.

Elsewhere, Meunier survives under its German names, Müllerrebe and Schwarzriesling, in marginal German vineyards, never playing a role comparable to the one it holds in Champagne.

Commonly confused with

Pinot Noir is the most natural confusion, since Meunier is a direct mutation of it: to the eye, the downy, whitish underside of Meunier's young leaves sets them apart immediately in the vineyard, long before any tasting. In the glass, Pinot Noir vinified as a blanc de noirs keeps more structure and complexity than Meunier, which reads as more immediately fruity.

Chardonnay, the third grape of the Champagne blend, is told apart by a sharper acidity and citrus or white-flower notes that Meunier does not carry to the same degree; Meunier stays in a register of fresh red fruit.