About This Vineyard
While there are an increasing number of producers in Champagne working with biodynamic viticulture, there are very few who have committed to it as fully as Françoise Bedel in Crouttes-sur-Marne, in the Vallée de l’Aisne. Bedel arrived at biodynamics through a roundabout road: in 1982, she sought homeopathic treatment for her son Vincent’s medical condition, and she credits his homeopathic practitioner, Robert Winer, for steering her towards a biodynamic worldview.
Over the following years, she became increasingly disillusioned with the methods and practices at her family-owned winery, and wanted to incorporate the ideas and philosophies that she had learned from Mr. Winer into her professional life. ‘There was a philosophic element that was missing in my work,’ she says. ‘I knew I wanted to do more, but I didn’t know what.’ The answer came in 1996, when she met Jean-Pierre Fleury of Champagne Fleury, who had begun biodynamic viticulture in 1989. After tasting the wines of Fleury and other biodynamic practitioners from various wine regions, she decided to convert two hectares to biodynamics in 1998, and the following year began conversion of the entire estate.
Today Bedel farms a total of 8.4 hectares (20.75 acres), all certified biodynamic by Ecocert. Bedel notes a pronounced difference in the wines before and after biodynamics. ‘There’s a certain rectilinear character in the wines now,’ she says. ‘The flavors are more intimate, with a greater profundity and expression.’