Marie-Courtin - Efflorescence Extra Brut 2014 (750ml)

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Producer	Marie-Courtin
Country	France
Region	Champagne
Varietal	Pinot Noir
Sku	30307
Size	750ml

Dominique Moreau named her estate after her grandmother, Marie Courtin, whom she describes as a “woman of the earth”. With the 2005 vintage, Dominique set out to produce a series of single-vineyard, single-variety, single-vintage, zero-dosage Champagnes from biodynamically-grown grapes that are farmed and elaborated with meticulous care. Spirituality plays an important role in her approach. Specifically, she uses pendulums to aid in evaluating the evolution of the grapes on the vine as well as the wine during élévage. She explains that the pendulum changes its natural rhythm and swing based on the energy emitted from a living being, whether person, vineyard, or wine.

Dominique's compelling Champagnes are electric and chiseled, with an intense brininess and minerality at their core.

Champagne Marie Courtin is located in the village of Polisot in the Côte des Bars (often referred to as the Aube), in the southern part of the Champagne region. With its slightly warmer temperatures, this area is particularly prized for its Pinot Noir grapes. Combined with the Kimmeridgian limestone sub soils, Aube champagnes retain a freshness similar to Chablis, which is more of a neighbor to Polisot than Epernay or Reims! In fact, many of the Grand Marques source their Pinot Noir from the Côte des Bars because of this unique combination of texture and delineation that the sub-zone provides.

Dominique Moreau created the estate in 2005 with a vision to produce a series of single-vineyard, single-variety, single-vintage Champagnes from Biodynamically-grown grapes that are farmed and elaborated with meticulous care. This philosophy is in stark contrast with the predominant mindset in Champagne which has historically focused on blending grapes, vineyards and vintages to achieve a consistent product or "house style", and with a tendency towards very high yields and full-on chemical treatments. For Dominique Moreau and likeminded growers, their house style is their terroirs, and is influenced by important factors such as massale selection clones and the ecoysystem of which their vines are a part.

Most of Dominique's wines come from a hillside vineyard of 40-45 year old, massale-selection Pinot Noir in Polisot (located the next town over from Celles-sur-Ource, where Cédric Bouchard lives and works). The combination of low yields, clay-limestone soils with bands of Kimmeridgian, and an east/southeast exposure gives the wines both power and cut, with an intense brininess and minerality at their core.

At harvest, the grapes are all harvested by hand. The wines are fermented with natural yeasts that have been selected from their vineyards and cultivated separately. These native yeasts are used for both the primary and secondary fermentations. Lastly, there is no dosage added upon disgorgement.

This wine, the Efflorescence Extra Brut, means "to evolve in perpetuity”. Starting with the evolution encouraged by the small oxygen exchange in barrel, she feels that this wine in particular will show a very different face at each stage of its development in bottle. She recommends that both wines be served in traditional white wine glasses to allow for their development through increased aeration.