The Doyard family have records showing that they were involved in viticulture as far back as 1677. The eleventh generation of the family, Yannick, is sure that his research into the family history will unearth an even earlier date.

In 1919 Maurice Doyard was the first in the family to produce wine followed in 1927 by the first estate bottling. Maurice laid the foundations for not only Champagne Doyard but also helped to ensure that Champagne standards would be upheld long into the future. He was President of the “Syndicat General Vignerons” from 1925 to 1944 as well as co-president of what is now the CIVC when it was formed in 1941.

Sixty years after the first wines were produced by the family a 20-year-old Yannick Doyard took the reins of the Domaine. He set about implementing reasoned viticulture and moving towards an organic approach.

The family vineyards now total around 11 hectares of some of the finest plots in Champagne. 10 hectares of Chardonnay vines are in the villages of Vertus (1er Cru), Le Mesnil sur Oger, Oger, Avize, and Cramant (all Grand Cru). The remaining 1 hectare of Pinot Noir vines are in the villages of Vertus and the Grand Cru village of Aÿ.

In total, there are a total of 54 plots spread across the six villages and the vines have an average age of 40 years. A programme of only replacing dead vines once a year is in place in order to increase the average age of the vines which gives low yields but at the same time produces the best quality fruit.

Today Yannick still takes a fully active role in the Domaine. He did take a slight back seat around 2013 to start the transition to the twelfth generation of the family Charles Doyard. Sadly, Charles tragically passed away in August 2017. It then fell to Yannick’s younger son Guillaume to change direction and return to work alongside his father full-time rather than just working during the harvest as he had done every year.

The whole focus is to produce wines that express the terroir. All cuvées undergo a minimum of 48 months of lees aging. This includes the Vendémiare Blanc de Blancs 1er Cru non-vintage. It is about as far from an entry-level Champagne as you could imagine.