Trépail

Trépail sits on east- and southeast-facing slopes on the eastern Montagne de Reims, in a corner of the subregion that breaks the rules. The village is overwhelmingly planted to Chardonnay despite belonging to a hill defined by Pinot Noir, and Trépail is the most famous of the four villages, with Villers-Marmery, Vaudemange, and Billy-le-Grand, that together make up the so-called Perle Blanche zone. The eastern aspect and chalk soils favour white grapes in a way that the rest of the Montagne does not. Trépail is also the address of one of the most closely watched grower estates in modern Champagne, a biodynamic, zero-dosage operation whose three single-vineyard cuvées have become reference points for what east-facing Chardonnay on the Montagne can do.