2019 Piollot Père et Fils Champagne Les Protelles

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

"The Les Protelles is an exciting new cuvée from Roland that is a Rosé de saignée (meaning that it is a rosé that has gained the pink colour through a short, 3 day maceration which was enough time to extract colour from the skins to produce the vibrant pink colour of this wine). It is made entirely from Pinot Noir.

The juice was transferred to a tank for the fermentation (both the alcoholic fermentation and the malolactic fermentation) prior to bottling. It spent two years on lees before being disgorged in October 2021. After disgorgement 3 grams per litre of dosage was added to create an Extra Brut wine. The Les Protelles vineyard has a beautiful southern exposure that ensures the grapes ripen well. The age of the vines is a minimum of 45 years." - 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.