Alexandre Cattier, CEO and winemaker on the eponymous maison, explains how a deep reference to the vineyards is the important thing to the preservation of Cattier’s trademark high quality and elegance.
A continuing labour of precision and craftsmanship, knowledgeable by the love for the terroir and historical past of Champagne, stays on the core of Champagne Cattier’s philosophy. This strategy has been mirrored in an ever extra granular information of every winery.
Setting the usual
Understanding and selling the well being of the vines has lengthy been a precedence for Champagne Cattier, one of many first maisons to acquire double certification for its personal holdings. ‘Our vineyards have two certifications – Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE) and Viticulture Sturdy en Champagne (VDC) – that are the end result of a journey we launched into greater than 25 years in the past,’ explains Alexandre Cattier. ‘This units the muse and the usual for what we count on from our suppliers. We work alongside them to make sure in addition they observe our rules.’
Sustainability and viticultural best-practice are seen as a duty but additionally, fairly merely, as a requirement for the manufacturing of the grapes that finest specific the plots they hail from. This purity of expression is in flip important to the identification of the wines produced by Cattier, outlined by a trademark roundness of construction, savoury enchantment and sense of place.
Reconnecting with the winery
If champagne is in the end a wine of course of and craftsmanship, Cattier is putting a renewed emphasis on the dynamic pulse of the winery, following its evolution all through the rising season. Are the present weather conditions a menace to the standard and identification of Champagne? ‘Thus far, we at Cattier have been in a position to, as we’ve got all the time completed, adapt to the fact of the winery in every classic. We’re certainly harvesting earlier and the grapes are extremely ripe however, then again, we’re more and more exact and conscious of how every plot evolves,’ explains Alexandre. ‘We’ve got reconnected with the vine and recovered the way in which our grandparents labored, spending extra time within the winery. This provides a stage of understanding that enables us to be extra aware and intervene much less however in the precise second.’
Alexandre Cattier
Savoury enchantment
This aware strategy is echoed within the cellar. ‘We’ve got fruit of excellent high quality from much-loved terroirs. What we search for [in the cellar] is to precise every of those terroirs by way of our cuvées.’ Meunier performs an necessary function within the construction and savouriness which have made Cattier’s champagnes well-known and so recognisable. ‘Our flagship terroirs – Chigny-les-Roses, Rilly-la-Montagne et Ludes – have a mean 60% of Meunier, a range that has much less construction than Pinot Noir however much more roundness and fragrant depth. Our champagnes – particularly the Brut, which has 50% Meunier within the mix – are very a lot outlined by these traits,’ Alexandre confirms. ‘However additionally it is a product of the terroir itself. One finds this identical roundness and depth of fruit even in our Chardonnays.’
The flexibility to grasp the winemaking course of to ensure that it to be a car of this identification, defines the essence of Champagne Cattier. Alexandre refers to more and more cautious urgent and separation of press sections, in addition to fast fermentations that promote fragrant complexity whereas avoiding discount, as among the necessary facets to realize this transparency.
Within the cellar as within the winery, change and evolution are merely the inevitable end result of extra expertise and of a renewed dedication to let the terroir and grapes converse for themselves. ‘There are not any revolutions. Merely the refinement of what we’ve got and have all the time completed,’ concludes Alexandre.
Champagne Cattier in three flagship cuvées
Clos du Moulin Premier Cru
50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir
Dosage: 5 gr/L
Aged for eight years earlier than degorgement
Vintages: 2008/2009/2012
A really distinctive wine from one among solely two clos in Champagne: the enduring Clos du Moulin, which cowl 2,2 hectares close to Chigny-les-Roses, within the coronary heart of Montagne de Reims. A mix of three chosen vintages chosen for his or her expressiveness and potential to age, Clos du Moulin is the bottled expression of a plot with a singular historical past, yielding fruit of recognisable magnificence and complexity. Every bottle is numbered.
Brut Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru
100% Chardonnay with 40% reserve wines
Dosage: 8 gr/L
Aged for 4 years earlier than degorgement.
This has grow to be Cattier’s emblematic cuvée, capturing each the idiosyncratic terroir it hails from and the cautious work completed within the cellar. The fruit is sourced from Cattier’s 9 flagship terroirs on the Montagne de Reims (predominantly Chigny-les-Roses, Rilly-la-Montagne and Ludes), and divulges a Chardonnay of distinctive fragrant expressiveness and poised construction. Its elegant opulence, notably within the mid palate, offset by its recent drive, have made this champagne as recognisable as it’s liked.
Meunier Premier Cru 2016
100% Meunier
Dosage: 8 gr/L
Aged for 5 years earlier than degorgement.
A really particular cuvée which Alexandre Cattier had lengthy needed to launch, showcasing the famend and sophisticated character of its Meuniers from Chigny-les-Roses, Rilly-la-Montagne and Ludes, which he describes as having ‘extra construction than elsewhere in Champagne, robust fragrant depth and delightful roundness on the palate.’ The choice to supply a classic cuvée additional captures the essence of a particular classic, shocking for its verticality and mineral precision, revealing one more face of Meunier.
Cattier’s full Premier Cru vary is out there within the UK by way of Majestic and within the US by way of Whole Wine.
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