The Greatest Bubble-Free Wines Made within the Champagne Area

For a lot of, the Champagne area and bubbles go hand-in-hand. Within the case of Coteaux Champenois wines, made predominantly within the famed fizzy area, there’s nary a bubble in sight. 

Far much less standard than its glowing counterparts from Champagne, this little-known type of nonetheless wine is experiencing a renaissance, particularly amongst small grower-producers throughout the area. 

The historical past of Coteaux Champenois wines

Coteaux Champenois wines pre-date its bubbly relative. Previous to the invention of the méthode champenoise, the signature vinification technique that provides Champagne its effervescence, the area was higher recognized for its nonetheless crimson wines produced from Pinot Noir. Their manufacturing dates to Roman occasions and had been loved repeatedly by European royalty. 

Juliette Alpis understands the attraction of Coteaux Champenois wines. Alpis is a winemaker at Domaine Les Monts Fournois, a Premier Cru property in Ludes, positioned within the northern a part of the Montagne de Reims. She says that Coteaux Champenois wines are a part of the heritage of French viticulture and vinification. 

“Served on the Coronations of the Kings in Reims, the crimson wines of the Montagne de Reims, notably from Bouzy, fueled the feud between them and the good wines of Burgundy,” says Alpis. She says a neighborhood reference guide in Bouzy from the nineteenth century describes the wines as “distinguished above all by their delicacy and their bouquet.”

The invention of the méthode champenoise throughout the late seventeenth century brought about the area’s nonetheless wines to fall out of trend. It wasn’t till the twentieth century that producers started to revive these forgotten wines. 

In 1974, Coteaux Champenois obtained its personal AOC designation, which permitted the wines to be vinified throughout a big swath of the area in white, rosé, and crimson codecs. All seven of the area’s denoted grape varieties — Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris — are permissible in Coteaux Champenois manufacturing. 

Rediscovering a terroir-focused type

In 2012, with the assistance of her winemaker cousins Raphaël and Vincent Bérêche, Alpis produced her first Coteaux Champenois at Les Monts Fournois. Crafted fully from Chardonnay grown within the Montagne de Reims, the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation and is aged for 18 months by means of the sur-lie course of, the place the wine rests on its lees in barrel. 

“The publicity is fully south-facing, which permits the Chardonnay to profit from the freshness of the Montagne de Reims, in addition to a southern publicity, which is right for the maturation of the bunches destined for Coteaux Champenois manufacturing,” says Alpis. 

In 2020, Fabian Daviaux, winemaker at Champagne Chavost within the Marne Valley, crafted his first Coteaux Champenois blanc. His inspiration got here from a plot of vines initially planted in 1954. 

“This plot offers very small yields, with small bunches of very small, very concentrated berries,” says Daviaux. He says this small quantity of high-quality juice is right for Coteaux Champenois manufacturing. 

Daviaux produced simply 1,191 bottles of his inaugural Coteaux Champenois blanc. “The one drawback is that we produce little or no quantity,” he says. 

Within the Marne Valley, Bryan Marx, winemaker at Marx-Coutelas and Domaine des Tuileries in Venteuil, produced his first Coteaux Champenois rouge throughout his first harvest in 2018. 

“With my father, we made nonetheless crimson wine destined for rosé Champagne manufacturing. Although every time we tasted the wine, it was excellent,” says Marx. 

The 2 determined to show the juice right into a nonetheless wine. They elongated the vinification for an extra six months in barrel. “It was the primary time within the historical past of our home that we made a Coteaux Champenois,” he says. 

Due to the expansive space of manufacturing and the huge spectrum of permitted grape varieties, Coteaux Champenois winemakers within the area get pleasure from nice stylistic freedom. 

“The Champagnes of various winemakers of the earlier generations regarded the identical, just because the [enologists] had been encouraging the identical vinification course of, regardless of the terroir,” says Marx. He says the youthful generations are extra centered on showcasing the distinctive terroirs of the area, each by means of nonetheless and glowing wine productions. 

Alpis says that the vinification of Coteaux Champenois wines may be “very instructional and explanatory for the winemaker.” Nice consideration is required throughout the sur-lie getting old course of. Alpis finds that whereas glowing wines from the area replicate terroir, the bubbles can typically masks a lot of it. 

“Almost about terroir reflection between the 2, the largest distinction for me is the time required to totally categorical itself,” says Alpis. With glowing Champagne, Alpis finds that terroir finest comes by means of after a minimal of 5 years of sur-lie getting old, whereas nonetheless Coteaux Champenois wines can be expressive as early as their second yr in bottle.  

“Coteaux Champenois reveals the world that we will produce an excellent wine in Champagne, and that the bubbles should not an artifice to cover something,” says Marx. 

Daviaux agrees. “Coteaux Champenois wines present that we aren’t solely Champagne producers, however we’re additionally nonetheless wine producers, and that we will do each in an excellent method,” he says.