Saturday, July 1, 2017, we hosted our inaugural event: an exclusive tasting of Roger-Constant Lemaire Champagne along our friend, Frances Brooks, owner of Amandus Wines. Amandus Wines is the exclusive importer and distributor of RC Lemaire Champagne in California. The event was held at Arader Galleries located on historic Jackson Street in San Francisco. This was our first official event for SIP & SAVEUR and we are thrilled that it was successful.
Our invited guests were treated to some of the world’s most extraordinary champagnes by Roger-Constant Lemaire and exquisite tartines, quiche and dessert faire by a local bakery. We are very thankful to Amandus Wines for giving us the opportunity to partner on such a wonderful event and to Josephine Arader of Arader Galleries for allowing us to host the event in her family’s transcending gallery. Our guests enjoyed being surrounded by the most beautiful vintage maps and botanical prints as they enjoyed sipping on world class champagne.
Roger-Constant Lemaire Champagnes stand out as prestigious; they're rare, delicate, subtle and indulgent.
The Roger-Constant Lemaire Family is proud of their ecological credentials and use only marine algae to protect their vines, canceling out the need for pesticides. The grapes are selected and harvested by hand, with only first press used in production. Vinification uses non malolactic fermentation methods to ensure a better quality of Champagne with its own natural acidity. The Champagne has an inherent sweetness allowing for the addition of only a very low dosage of cane sugar. All their champagnes are 12% alcohol by vol.
The Lemaire family history began at the end of the 19th century in Hautvilliers, the birthplace of Champagne. A family tradition was born when the patriarch, Désiré Lemaire, purchased what is now the Lemaire vineyards. The full vision was developed by his grandchild, Roger Constant Lemaire, who understood the importance of harmoniously blending the different grapes in order to create high quality champagne.
In 1945, Roger doubled the size of the estate and relocated the family home and headquarters to Villers-sous-Châtillon. From just 30 acres, the family operated estate now exports all over the world under the name Roger-Constant Lemaire.
Amandus Wines:
Frances Brooks, founder and owner of Amandus Wines, met Roger and his family two years ago while on vacation in the heart of the Champagne region. She rented the family’s 18th century home in the village of Villers sous Châtillon home for the trip. While staying in the family’s home, she met Roger who spoke of their Champagne and that they were interested in breaking into the US market but did not have the budget for marketing. As fate allowed it, this meeting could not have been more than two great forces being brought together by the universe. With Frances’ background in advertising, she told the family she would be happy to help work with the marketing materials they already had.
Roger informed Frances that they had a family friend in the Bay Area who would be her contact in the US. She offered to support the family and their friend while at the same time creating a new job opportunity for herself (in addition to her day job!). After not being able to get in touch with the family’s Bay Area contact for 3 months, Frances reported the breakdown in communication back to Roger. To her surprise and delight, Frances learned that they were no longer working with that person and needed someone to take over the role. Frances gladly offered to step in to the role as importer and distributor of Roger-Constant Lemaire Champagne in California. This, in turn, led to her new venture, Amandus Wines. Amandus Wines is now the exclusive importer and distributor of Roger-Constant Lemaire Champagne in California.
Please direct all inquiries, including orders from the event, to Frances Brooks at Frances@amanduswines.com