“I am, perhaps, the least champenois of all champenois”. The phrase confessed to Peter Liem defines the profile of Olivier Horiot, this “eccentric” Aube producer who, when he started production in 2000, chose to focus on still rosé and red wines, only starting to make Champagne 4 years later. On their website there is a kind of justification for this: “our villa was sometimes from Burgundy and other times from Champagne in recent centuries”. As soon as he started his own production, Olivier began to eliminate the use of pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers. It started converting its vineyards into biodynamic ones in 2002, finishing the process in 2006. Horiot is one of the few Champenois producers to produce wines from the 3 AOCs allowed in the region: Champagne, Coteaux Champenois (both white and red) and Rosé de Riceys. Today it is best known for its fine wines from the two less famous AOCs. Even their Rosés de Riceys are out of the ordinary and with unusual complexity in AOC. It produces two “single vineyards” from two very different plots: Valingrain and Barmont. Valingrain is a south facing vineyard, very hot in summer and with clayey soil rich in marl (clay with calcium carbonate). Barmont, on the other hand, is a southeast facing vineyard, with cold morning and night, which preserves its acidity. Its soil is richer, red clay with limestone elements from the Portlandian period (from the high Kimmeridgian period as in Chablis). Birth: 2000 Classification: Recoltant Manipulant Production: around 6,000 bottles per year Culture: biodynamic. Cellar: Horiot vinifies each parcel separately. Their rosés undergo semi-carbonic maceration for about a week and then transferred to neutral barrels. They age another 2 years before going to market. Their Champagnes are aged sur lie for 4 years after a year of aging in neutral barrels. It still produces a Soléra cuvée, entirely from a reserve perpetuelle started in 2010 on the “sol est roi” plot. Vineyards: 6.5ha in Les Riceys, producing 75% Pinot Noir, 10% Chardonnay, 5% Pinot Blanc, 3% Arbanne, 3% Meunier, 2% Petit Meslier and 2% Pinot Gris. Address: 25 rue de Bise, 10340 Les Riceys – FRANCE Visits: no information yet
Site: https://www.horiot.fr
Comments