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Master Winemaker 100: Sandrine Logette-Jardin

25 March 2026 By db staff writer

The cellar master at Champagne Duval-Leroy features in this year’s Master Winemaker 100 guide. She tells db about pushing boundaries against constraints, adapting to a changing climate and tending her garden.

*Sandrine Logette-Jardin blending in the winery.*

Growing up in Champagne’s Vallée de l’Ardre, Sandrine Logette-Jardin was immersed in this famous wine region from her earliest years. She formalised this connection through an Oenology diploma from the Faculty of Sciences in Reims, taking the opportunity to build experience at several Champagne houses during her studies. In 1991, Logette-Jardin began a long association with Champagne Duval-Leroy, joining the house for the harvest and then taking on the role of quality manager. In 2007, she was appointed Duval-Leroy’s cellar master just in time to take responsibility for the house’s expression of the exceptional 2008 Champagne vintage. Logette-Jardin balances this role with being a devoted mother of two daughters.

A wise person once told me that it’s in the difficult vintages when the true talent of a cellar master is revealed.

A great wine should awaken emotions that leave a lasting mark in the heart and memory.

A great winemaker should remain humble before the gifts of Mother Nature and acknowledge that it is their terroir which allows them to achieve success.

Perfection is a concept that doesn’t exist. We can strive for it, but we can never truly attain it.

The thing I’d most like to change about the wine world is the rules and constraints, which make it difficult to push boundaries and embark on new adventures.

I wish I could tell the consumer who drinks my wine that this wine is the result of the diligent and meticulous work of an entire human chain devoted to its terroir.

The last time I asked a sommelier for advice was during the creation of the Cuvée Sur-Mesure MOF – all of them were holders of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France [Best Craftsman in France] in sommellerie.

If I couldn’t be a winemaker… Well then, I would be an oenologist.

I wish our vineyards in Champagne could be spared from too rapid a climate evolution, so that we might have time to adapt our viticultural and oenological practices in order to continue offering wines of effervescence that are fresh, refined and pure.

My next ambition is something I’m still wondering about. Perhaps it’s simply to do the best I can with the means I have.

If I won the lottery, I would travel the world visiting vineyards. All terroirs interest and intrigue me. The essence of this dream is to carry out my own analysis beyond what one can read or taste. It’s about feeling wonder; it’s about enriching myself through landscapes and encounters, to better understand the terroirs, the people, the wines and the deeper spirit of nature. There’s also another layer to this dream: having the time to make it happen.

If there were more hours in the day – although I would actually prefer more days in a week – I would tend to my garden, open my mind through more reading and enjoy a few glasses of wine.

When it’s all going wrong, I take a deep breath, or several – as many as are needed – to stay the course and keep moving in the right direction while waiting for the wind to turn. If it doesn’t turn fast enough, I turn to my loved ones to share my worries, and a good bottle, such as a Fleur de Champagne Premier Cru.

My desert island wine would be our Femme 2008, for its remarkable ability to age gracefully, without a wrinkle, and for its unforgettable and enduring perception of freshness.