2017 Piollot Père et Fils Champagne Champs Rayés

WINEMAKER: Roland Piollot & Dominique Moreau
REGION: Champagne, FR
VARIETAL: Chardonnay
VITICULTURE: Certified Organic/Biodynamic

"The Champs Rayés is another new cuvée from Roland Piollot and is the finest Champagne from that estate. The Champs Rayés cuvee comes from an area known as Noé les Mallets where Roland has two plots of vines “Champs Rayés” and “Derrière le Bois” planted entirely to massale selection Chardonnay and both of which have clay, marl and limestone soils. The resulting Champagne is a fine, elegant and rich wine of incredible finesse. By the way, the Champs Rayés vineyard gets its name (striped field) from the two different types of marl rocks found in this area.

Notice that this Champagne bears the term Brut Nature on the label. This can only appear in wines that have had no sugar added at any time during the maturation of the wine. The wine has neither been fined or filtered. As with the Come des Tallants, this wine sports a new label. It was disgorged in November 2021 after spending around four years on lees." - Living Wines

Roland Piollot and Dominique Moreau are serious winemakers who are just as serious about the quality of the soil in which their vines grow – they each have their own vineyards and make their own Champagne but help and advise each other.

Roland assiduously attends to his long mounds of organic compost that he prepares with care for application to his vineyard. The vineyard is being converted to biodynamic practices therefore no chemicals are used, no chemical fertilisers are used and no herbicides are used.

Working with his wife Dominique their compost recipe involves starting with the left overs from the press after harvest then adding manure in January, followed by a biodynamic preparation towards the end of winter. Everything in the compost comes from within 12 kilometres of Polisot, including straw and sawdust.

Roland explains that unlike chemical fertilisers, once applied, their home-made slowly-matured compost “brings what the vineyard needs but slowly”. It make more even growth, not a quick burst and they also like the assurance of knowing exactly what we are putting in the vineyards. He also thinks that the vines like the warmth that comes from the compost.

His vineyard is a special place with sweeping views across the valley in which his home village of Polisot nestles. Here ducks swim contentedly in the tranquil upper reaches of the Seine River and vegetable gardens line its banks. It is an idyllic location. The nearest major town is the ancient city of Troyes.