Marie Courtin, Coteaux Champenois Le Blanc du Tremble 2018

100% Pinot Noir (as a still white wine)

Côte des Bar, Champagne, France

From a single parcel in Polisot named Le Tremble. The 50 year old vines are facing east facing and planted by massale selection. Vines are approximately 40 years old, in Kimmeridgian Limestone. Dominique Moreau and her children farm their vines biodynamically. Vines are planted at a density of 8,000 plants per hectare. The one parcel is broken up into four parts depending on rootstock and vine age. All vineyard work is done by hand. Pruning does not begin until the Spring. Only copper is used in the vineyard. Grapes are lightly pressed and native yeast fermentation occurs in two 5hl amphoras, one in clay and one in sandstone. Malolactic fermentation completes naturally. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered. Aged for 11 months in amphoras. 1,200 bottles produced. VEGAN

Champagne Marie Courtin is located in the village of Polisot in the Côte des Bars, in the southern part of the Champagne region. With its slightly warmer temperatures, this area is particularly prized for its Pinot Noir grapes. Combined with the Kimmeridgian limestone sub soils, the champagnes retain a freshness similar to Chablis, which is actually closer to Polisot than Reims! In fact, many of the Grand Marques source their Pinot Noir from the Côte des Bars because of this unique combination of texture and delineation that the sub-zone provides.

Dominique Moreau created the estate in 2005 with a vision to produce a series of single-vineyard, single varietal, single vintage Champagnes from Biodynamically-grown grapes that are farmed and elaborated with meticulous care. This philosophy is in stark contrast with the predominant mindset in Champagne which is all about blending grapes, vineyards and vintages (for a consistent product), and with a tendency towards very high yields and full-on chemical treatments.

Dominique named her estate after her grandmother, Marie Courtin, whom she describes as a “woman of the earth”. Most of her wines come from a hillside vineyard of 40-45 year old, massale-selection Pinot Noir in Polisot (located the next town over from Celles-sur-Ource, where Cédric Bouchard lives and works). The combination of low yields, clay-limestone soils (with bands of Kimmeridgian) and an east/southeast exposure gives the wines both power and cut, with an intense brininess and minerality at their core.

The style of all her wines is super-energetic and chisled, though with an underlying power from both her viticulural practices and the terroirs and varietals that she exploits. These are spectacular wines at the table as they combine multiple vectors of complexity, power and delineation that all play off each other depending on the dishes they are served with.

Along with Dominique's intense dedication to the care of her vineyards and her winemaking, she also embraces a spiritual philosophy in her production and viticulture. In one particular technique, she uses pendulums (often used in energy healing practices) in both the vineyard and cellar to aid in evaluating both the evolution of the grapes on the vine as well as the wine during élévage. She explains that the pendulum changes its natural rhythm and swing based on the energy emitted from a living being, whether person, vineyard, or wine.