The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste by Rajat Parr & Jordan Mackay

Author:Rajat Parr & Jordan Mackay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale
Published: 2018-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

The Côte de Sézanne

South of the Côte des Blancs, just below the St-Gond marsh (whose swampy expanses figured strongly into the muddy World War I Battle of the Marne that’s credited with saving Paris and turning the war), lies another series of slopes in the vicinity of the town of Sézanne. Known as the Côte de Sézanne or the Sézannais, the region wasn’t really planted extensively until the 1960s, but is emerging today as a unique terroir that can provide another perspective on Champagne, much like the Aube, 60 miles to the south. While it is often looked at as a continuation of the Côte des Blancs, the Sézannais has its own identity. Chardonnay predominates, but because the soils contain chalk but also clay and silex, dense and ripe Pinots can also emerge.

The producer who has brought the most attention to the Côte de Sézanne in recent years is Olivier Collin of Domaine Ulysse Collin. A 2001 stage with Anselme Selosse inspired Collin to work to retrieve his family’s vineyards from contractual obligation to some large négociant houses. His first wine came from the 2004 vintage from Les Perrières, a Chardonnay vineyard with chalky subsoils and scattered pieces of silex. When it came out in 2007, the wine made an instant stir, with its rich, powerfully vinous quality that was more reminiscent of a white Burgundy than a Champagne from the Côte des Blancs. By contrast, Collin’s Pinot Noir from the Maillons vineyard has an ethereal elegance. He works in a natural, non-interventionist style and his wines show full maturity of the grapes, balanced by surging minerality and an austerely dry palate. Collin is but one standout producer working in a relatively unknown region, but given the quality and distinctiveness his wines show, we have no doubt there will be more.

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