Maison Raday
Champagne
While we believe that change is the only constant, in the case of Valentin Tribaut, this may not be as true as we think. We aren't speaking in regards to his winemaking choices, but rather his connectivity. When we met with him this winter, we had an incredible tasting and conversation, after which he said "Okay, well you won't have much communication from me until you come back." He doesn't have Instagram nor ever will, doesn't have his winery's address on any maps, and essentially wants to keep it "off the grid". Maybe that lack of screen time has given him that much more time to focus on his wines, because wow – for his first and second vintage, impressive is an understatement.
Champagne Tribaut Schloesser is his father's winery, which he is still running alongside his brother. Like so many other young vignerons, they are leaving the family work as is, and looking to put their creativity, innovation, and passions to work elsewhere. Valentin is quite lucky: his closest neighbor happens to also be his cousin who by chance has one of the most famed vineyards and wines in all of Champagne at the moment: Aurelien Lurquin. If you were going to start making wine, wouldn't you want it to be with exceptional grapes, where the farming practices are at an all-time high?
With Maison Raday, everything is a tribute to the unique local terroir. The Domaine name comes from the river which crosses the villages of Romery, Cormoyeux and Fleury la Rivière. This has created the valley where for several generations the Tribaut family has cultivated its vineyards
Viticulture and Vinification
Valentin Tribaut is getting his grapes from Crayères du Levant (Vallée de la Marne), a vineyard most people know well by now due to Aurelien Lurquin. Aurelien has been farming his vineyards biodynamically since 2012. He is known as a true farmer. If you ask anyone where he spends most, or arguably all, of his time – it is the vineyard. When you meet him, he is humble, quiet, incredibly generous, and enjoyable to be around. Rather soft spoken, but when it comes to his vineyards, he couldn't be more disciplined, persistent, committed, and focused on what he wants. The hard work has definitely paid off.
The first vintage was 2018, with just 2000 kg of grapes, equal parts Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. In 2019, Valentin decided to start working with grapes from Regis Poissinet, a biodynamic winegrower in Cuchery whose farming he has always given high praise. When Thatcher's introduced Champagne Chavost, we were trying to re-introduce what the term co-op can mean—and we feel similarly to Valentin being a negociant (purchasing fruit). Unlike the traditional negociant model, his philosophy is to transcribe the singularity of each terroir and the ethics, hard work, and expertise of winegrowers. On each label he states the winegrower's name, ensuring their efforts are recognized. Vinification is carried out in the most natural way possible. The aging of the wines in barrels is done without any additions and with as little intervention as possible.
Valentin's notes on the 2020 harvest:"This vintage was particularly extreme in terms of weather; in fact, after a very rainy winter, the spring and summer was very dry with almost no rain. Harvest was in early September and both cuvées were picked around 11.5 % potential alcohol. This resulted in both high acidity and density showing great potential on this vintage that I consider still a BABY!"This was also the first entirely organic harvest of Meunier form Regis Poissinet, so from 2020 onward, both cuvées are certified organic! The main change for both cuvées is that the aging in barrels on the fine lees was longer – 24 months instead of 11-12 months. This decision was mostly motivated by the absence of a 2021 vintage due to damage from mildew. Valentin preferred to leave the 2020 in barrels than having them empty for a year. Next bottling will go back to 12 months aging on lees.
The second big change is that this bottling is the first bottling under cork for the secondary fermentation. On the 2019 vintage, he did some samples of cork bottling that were trialed at different periods of the aging. The cork bottling was always showing better for his taste, giving more quick evolution and adding natural tannin from the cork.
