MILLÉSIME
2013 Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut 1er Cru Champagne Roger Coulon
Grapes | Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir |
Colour | White |
Origin | France, Champagne |
Other | Certified Organic |
Classification | 1er Cru |
ABV | 12% |
50% Pinot Noir, 50% Pinot Meunier. Dosage 3 g/l. Vines 30 to 51 years old. Spontaneous fermentation in vats and small old oak. Natural malo on lees. Natural clarification. Eight years sur lattes.
Smells like carrot cake with lemon icing! Topped with toasted walnuts. Tinged with bitter marmalade. A wine that licks the top of your spine. Lime pickle, tamarind, mango chutney, toasted cumin, touch of rye, spelt in honey. Complex and powerful and dramatic and absolutely stunning. Long, insistent, holding and holding and holding … A Stradivarius would craft a better tasting note than any words I could cobble together. I'd cross the desert for these Coulon wines … Drinking range: 2023 - 2038 Rating: 18.5 Tamlyn Currin - www.JancisRobinson.com (Jun 2023)
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*Case price discount: Mix any 12 bottles of wine (or 9 litre equivalent) or 6 bottles of Champagne, Spirits, Sweet Wine or Fortified (4.5 litres) to get the discounted 'case price' for each bottle.
Made from old vine ungrafted Pinot Meunier from sandy soils in the village of Gueux, and Pinot Noir from Vrigny. Harvested in October at 9-9.5% - and they had to wait for this level of ripeness, but it paid off. A wine that is quite old-style, with a combination of complex orchard and dried fruit aromas - the cooked fruit evolution of Meunier and fresh plum of the Pinot Noir, softened and polished by time in barrel and bottle - all combined with an acidity which has meant not only that it is capable of long ageing but is also vibrant and long. Drinking range: 2022 - 2030L&S (Oct 2022)
50% meunier and 50% pinot noir from 51 and 30 year old vines in Vrigny and Gueux; 8000 bottles; disgorged December 2021; 3g/ L dosage – all on back label; north and south-east facing slopes on thanecian sand; no chaptalisation; wild fermented in vats; no malolactic fermentation; aged 10 months on lees in stainless steel vats; unfined and unfiltered; aged at least 8 years in the underground cellars of the domaine; cork.
The brightness of 2013 in the absence of malolactic fermentation is just the antidote that the soft and gentle style of Coulon calls for to infuse the energy and confidence to handle wild fermentation and barrel age. Meunier and pinot noir unite with dynamic poise and verve, in a display of strawberries and red cherries, capturing the full spice rack expansiveness of meunier on a finish of poise and balance. Bright malic acidity and fine phenolic grip are well toned by the creamy mood of wild barrel fermentation. Rating: 92 Tyson Stelzer - The Champagne Guide (Jul 2024)
From two vineyards: one in Vrigny with Meunier vines planted in 1959 on their own roots and the other in Gueux. 50% Meunier, 50% Pinot Noir. Disgorged October 2022. Dosage 3 g/l. 8,000 bottles made. This is a heartbreaker! Sweet and exquisite. A concerto of flowers, underpinned by honeyed intensity of rich, ripe, glowing fruit. Honeysuckle, blackcurrant blossom and blackberry blossom. Quince and persimmon and deep-gold apples. The energy vibrating through the wine seems to have its own forcefield. Such a clear sense of chalk and crushed stone minerality as well. Acidity that threads through it all like silvery gossamer. Rather extraordinary. Stunning, in fact. Drinking range: 2024 - 2034 Rating: 18.5 Tamlyn Currin - www.JancisRobinson.com (May 2024)
Champagne Roger Coulon
Eric and Isabelle Coulon, now joined by their children Edgar and Louise, have around 11 hectares of vines in Premier and Grand Cru sites in Vrigny, Gueux and Coulommes-la-Montagne on the Montagne de Reims, and Chouilly on the Côte des Blancs. The vineyards are farmed organically under the principles of agroforestry. They are justly proud of the history of the vineyard, which goes back to the cultivation of vines here in the 6th century, and also of their own long family history, with Edgar and Louise being the ninth generation.
The vines are in around 100 parcels, so although they aim to press by parcel, some do end up going together. Around one third is vinified in tank, the rest in barrel. Both Edgar and Louise have trained in wine-making elsewhere, Louise at Domaine Ott, and Edgar with Philippe Pacalet and Fredéric Cossard in Burgundy, but also in England and Australia.
The family aim to pick at decent maturity, to give the wines a natural balance and feel, and the maximum dosage used is 3g/l. The second fermentation is at around 4.5-4.8 bar, a little lower than the classical 5 bar, giving what Eric describes as 'measured effervescence'. 'I make wine of Champagne not Champagne', he adds, 'Everything at Roger Coulon needs to be harmonious, that's what counts the most for me'.
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