1735 was the year in which the first winegrower in the Mandois family appeared on the official registers held at that time by the church.
In 1862, Victor Mandois was the first winemaker from among our ancestors when he started to produce a few wines in the old Epernay winery on Avenue Grandpierre.
In 1905, at the instigation of his son Victor Auguste, the company moved to Pierry and developed its sales activity. Unfortunately, the crisis at the turn of the century and the untimely death of Victor Auguste brought this momentum to a swift halt: the vineyards were then split into 3 parts.
Henri, Victor Auguste’s youngest son, took over the estate with a reduced surface area of 3.5 hectares and produced his own Champagne against the backdrop of the precarious 1930s. Through grit and determination, he managed to survive these difficult and uncertain times.
From 1950 onwards, helped by his son Michel, he rebuilt sales, built new presses, dug out deep cellars and expanded the vineyards.
In 1970, the Mandois Champagne House shipped 250,000 bottles and owned 25 hectares of vines. In 1989, the decision was taken to become a wine negociant in order to meet demand and Michel’s son Claude took on this mission, supported by his mother Madeleine.
In 2000, the Mandois family owned 40 hectares of vineyards and produced 500,000 bottles per year. It was then that Claude started thinking about changing the way the vineyards were managed in order to revert to more natural growing practices.
The Clos Mandois became Mandois’ testing ground. Pre-emergence herbicides were dispensed with, every other row was grassed over, and ploughing, which had been abandoned at the end of the 1960s, was re-introduced: little by little, the winegrowing work became more natural and in 2017 the decision was taken to embark on the conversion to organic growing, which was a logical framework for all these initiatives.
In 2020, the Mandois family’s vineyards, after a bit of internal reorganisation, represent 37 hectares of vines, 32 of which are certified organic.
The Champagne House in Pierry currently boasts one of the largest certified organic vineyards in the Champagne region. The first challenge of reverting to more natural work was successfully met in the vineyards and we are now focusing on bringing out the natural expression of the different terroirs.
At Mandois, actions have always spoken louder than words and true values such as quality and loyalty remain at the heart of our approach.
