Anecdotes about the domain
For me, being a winemaker is like being a father. When a child is born, we don't know his potential, nor his dreams. Our dreams choose us, we do not choose our dreams. For me, the role of a father is to accompany the child so that he connects to what makes him vibrate, to what animates him, to his hidden gift or talent. Why? So that he can reveal it, develop it and put it at the service of all. For the vine and the wine, it's the same. My role is to accompany the living being so that it does what it knows how to do best. This is totally unknown to me. My role is to learn to find the right attitude between distance and presence, between letting go and intervention, so that life gives its best to serve man. And the more I give the best of myself for life, the more life rewards me for my involvement. On the vine, the best thing I could do until 2012 was biodynamics. The common point between biodynamics and homeopathy is dynamization. Dynamization fixes information. When you take homeopathic granules, the body has a biological response. It means that the living being understands the information. With biodynamics, it is a series of information that is transmitted simultaneously to the life of the soil and to the plants, even to the insects... The biodynamic preparation causes behavioral changes by activating the cellular receptors of soil fungi, bacteria, microorganisms, and also plant cells. The biodynamic preparation gives a common direction to all the life of the place and acts like a conductor. Our attitude is the same with wine: I don't know what can be done with indigenous yeasts. I don't know what can be done for the indigenous yeasts, so I simply connect to their potential. I don't impose anything, I accompany the potential. Until 2005 I thought that the winemaker made the wine. I was wrong. It is the life present in the wine that shapes it day after day. My role is to connect the life to its full potential. That's why we eliminate all substances that can inhibit this potential: 0 inputs, no sulfite during fermentations; and most importantly, all the rows along our neighbors (potentially contaminated by pesticides) are sold to the merchant.
The domain's short story
The first ten years were devoted to understanding the terroirs and the right actions to put in place to express it as precisely as possible. As we moved from traditional farming on our Vallée de Marne terroirs to organic and then biodynamic farming, the wines evolved considerably. Our senses of taste, smell, and touch (tactile sensation on the tongue) perceive it easily. It's a bit like television, where you could perceive the difference in image between the cathode ray tube (sustainable culture), HD (organic), and 4K (biodynamic). Thanks to the successful experience since 2008 on natural vinifications controlled even in the absence of sulfites, Isabelle and Franck have learned a lot about the right attitude to have to accompany the living. Today, the couple is dedicated to another evolution of the domain to go even further in the expression of the wines than what they had succeeded in doing through biodynamics. It all started in 2012... and you will see that a difficult situation can lead to a gift for the world, the important thing being to go through the "dark" situation and arrive at the "light".In 2012, Franck was no longer in agreement with treating his vines. The rainiest year of his career required so much copper to protect the vines that the doses needed could have been toxic to the soil. He chose to preserve the quality of his soils knowing that the vines were capable of producing new grapes the following year. That year, some plots lost 80% of their harvest...This experience was profitable in the sense that:- the vines worked with horses resisted much better than those worked with a tractor- there was a need to secure biodynamics, which had become insufficient in this fast changing worldSince 2013, Isabelle and Franck have applied the therapeutic methods that they reserved only for human beings and wine making to their vineyard. From bluffing experience to bluffing experience, they conducted a trial in 2015 at Baslieux-sous-Chatillon over the entire season. The goal was to keep the vine's vitality at its maximum to see what impact this would have on its health. Having received zero sprays, the foliage and bunches were healthy in this trial while several plots had powdery mildew in the village. Driven by the truth about Life, Isabelle and Franck go above and beyond to create extraordinary wines of pleasure and quality, and are happy to make you experience new sensations.
The winemaker's pride
Isabelle and Franck are recognized in the Champagne region as a flagship estate, not only for the exemplary quality of the wines they produce, but also for their very personal, deeply human and inspiring vision.It is driven by the desire to create authentic and sincere cuvées, of which previous and future generations can be proud, that Franck returned to the family estate in 1994. He decided to do this with a respectful approach to Life and Nature, with a true environmental ethic. This was a real stroke of luck for this ambitious winemaker as he found that every action taken in favor of, and in the direction of, life improves the intrinsic characteristics of the grape and improves its definition... giving increasing potential to the wines year after year... With this experience, the couple is questioning themselves on the vinifications to go and find the brand new potential of the grape. Once again, this is done through the living; because it is the living of the wine that ferments it, transforms it, and shapes it day after day. The potential of a great wine is also found in the capacity of the living being to transform the grape juice into wine with fermentations of which Man knows very little. Isabelle and Franck have spent several years finding the right way to accompany the living in their wines, and give fine, pure, clean, straight and precise wines whatever the vintage profile. To preserve the sensations captured in the grapes and the balance desired by Nature, no inputs are used (except for a little sulfite on some vintages), no fining, no filtration, no chilling, and the benefit to the consumer is that the wine is the image of the life intended. It is a new experience that has no equivalent at present. It is a privileged moment between Nature and Man... where the body recognizes the Champagne as something good for it, which does it good. Signs such as drinkability, digestibility, and the salivation reflex attest to this.
Pictures of the domain
