Marie Courtin Champagne

Today, I’m delighted with the idea that I might be introducing you to a new Champagne house… Marie Courtin. You’ll see below that the excellent reviews speak to the accomplishments of this house, but the “why” might be more interesting.

In the Champagne world, this grower-producer is turning heads with their single vineyard, no dosage, biodynamically grown, vintage wines – and on offer today a particularly banging year for Champagne (2018 - more on that below). Very simply, these are not to be missed and come with my highest recommendation!

Located in the Cote des Bars, often referred to as the Aube, this is the southern most portion of the Champagne region, and an area prized for its pinot noir. Many of the Grand Marques source their pinot noir from the Cotes des Bars as the Kimmeridgian limestone soils found in the area provide a unique freshness and minerality similar to what you might find in Chablis.

Dominique Moreau created the estate in 2005 with a vision to produce wines that express their own personality. The house style here is “terroir” as each wine tells its own unique story. The wines are made from single vineyards, single varietals, fermented with natural yeast with no sugar added (no dosage). All fruit is grown biodynamically with meticulous attention to detail at every step along the way.

Most of Dominique's wines come from a hillside vineyard planted from massale-selection, with average vine age of approximately 45 years. 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 Efflorescence comes from the deeper soils at the bottom of the hill - the higher percentage of clay in the soil here produces a wine with a more vinous quality- this is a full bodied pinot noir where the red berry fruit is very much front and center. 36 months lees aging, also with zero dosage. This wine has tremendous depth and weight to it and you would be very hard pressed to say this is zero dosage. This one drinks more like wine than a Champagne and is easy to love.

The Concordance is another 100% pinot noir with zero sulfur added and again zero dosage. It drinks a bit leaner and racier to me but again the red berry fruit is hard to miss. Both wines are really well made and come with my highest recommendation.

As more and more 2018’s begin to hit the market, I feel people are starting to realize just how good this vintage is for Champagne.

Here’s the deal …in the coming years, as more and more of the well known Champagnes begin to release this vintage, you will really start hearing people sing its praises. But by the time most realize this is really going to go down as a suburb vintage, the little wines like Marie Courtin are going to be long gone. The smart buyer is grabbing these before they disappear!