Coteaux Champenois!
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Coming up in the wine world, the first time I heard the term "Coteaux Champenois" was in reference to a sparkling wine - one of our all-timers in fact. Let's get it out of the way: Selosse's Rosé is colored with Egly-Ouriet's Coteax Champenois. Knowing that Anselme won't let any other winemaker or their vineyards near his own production, this speaks to the sheer quality possible in still Champagne.
The appellation was established to bring more flexibility to the producers of still wines in Champagne - allowing also the inclusion of Pinot Blanc, Arbane, Petit Meslier and Fromenteau in more than the bit part they are allowed in sparkling wines - especially with the region continuing to warm up. No longer are the still wines so shrill as the Vin Clairs once were (imagine that a secondary fermentation will add 1-1.5% of alcohol, so the base wines would often be in the 10-11% range. Read: enamel-melting-ly acidic). In fact, they're outstanding, energetic versions of the new wave of Burgundy: pure expressions of terroir, aromatic and made without heavy doses of oak.
"The whites strike me more like Premier Cru Chablis," says Haley, "With the reds landing more like a brighter Burgundy - Côtes d'Auxerre, for example; when I taste them, I place them more in the Burgundy realm than a still Champagne."
There are the more regal, grand versions such as those of Bollinger and Egly-Ouriet, with a growing number of our small grower-producers releasing individualistic, hand-crafted cuvees that are all about plot expression and elegance - Marguet, Prelat and Feneuil come to mind.
