Champagne François Secondé

It is quite surprising given Sillery’s classification as a Grand Cru and its excellent reputation, there was no mono-cru from the traditional municipality for decades, until the appearance of François Secondé, who left school at 14 and became a vineyard worker after completing an apprenticeship.

François eventually bought his first vineyard in 1972 and with the help of his wife Anne-Marie, started to produce their own wines in 1976 as they gradually increased their vineyard holdings. Their only son, Xavier, who was to succeed them, was unfortunately killed in an accident in Italy at a tender age of 21 in 2005. The family fell into deep mourning and with no heir in sight, they hired Jérôme Groslambert, then a young oenologist trained in Avize and Reims, to take over the management of the entire estate in 2009.

He and François worked closely together for almost a decade to craft and streamline the style of champagnes that would reflect the terroir of Sillery before François passed on in 2018. Jérôme acquired the majority shares of the winery from Anne-Marie towards the end of 2023 and eventually became the newly minted owner of the company, carrying on the torch, tradition and dream started by the late François Secondé. To this day, they remain the only independent winegrower to bottle pure Sillery Grand Cru amidst an ocean of multi-national conglomerates who own most of the land in this sleepy town.