After having studied law for ten years, Olivier Collin came back to his lands to create his brand of Champagne “Ulysse Collin”. He borrowed the name of one of his ancestors of the 19th century as a reference to his family of wine growers and coopers established in Congy since 1703. And chose to craft only single vineyard wines, mono cru and mono grape variety, with partial maturing in wooden barrels to highlight the peculiarity of his Champagnes. A success!
His father, a wine grower, delivered the fruit of his work to the great houses and even set his vineyard in sharecropping during his son’s absence. When back, Olivier spent one year in apprenticeship at Anselme Selosse to learn vinification in barrels, and the year after he managed to get back, with his family’s help, the vineyards and buildings to settle.
He now has at his disposal 8.70 ha cultivated in Congy and surroundings. He keeps 5 ha for the brand and still supplies the trade. And produces 32,000 bottles a year on average, now pre-sold from year to year, in 25 countries at a very high average price of €53 all taxes included!
The secret of his success relies on his personal project that is to craft only non-vintage single plot cuvées from his vineyard of Congy and close surroundings, a non-classed cru but very appreciated by the Roman, for its Cenomanian-Campanian subsoil made of tender chalk mixed with flint stone, and its Southern exposure. His entire production is mono-cru and mono-grape variety.
“I chose for by-plot vinification, Olivier explains, as I have enough varied and important geological ensembles to provide a peculiar taste to each of them.
On the vineyard side, my years at law school taught me to structure my thinking and I learnt rigour in crafting. I plough the soil and cover it with grass, I use organic products against oidium, I work following the lunar calendar, at summer solstice I bottle, at waning moon I trim, at crescent moon I plough; I trust my farmer’s wisdom and am pragmatic.
I concentrate on the essential, I try to make the finest wines and praise a moderate production because beyond a certain volume, I will not make it. I know each vat and follow their development. All these cuvées undergo alcoholic fermentation in 225-litre Bordeaux barrels (of 4 to 5 wines) and stay there for six months. They are then submitted to malolactic fermentation with lactic bacteries in thermo-regulated stainless steel vats. I bottle them nine months later and they then age three years on laths. None of these cuvées are declared vintage, all of them being added with 10% reserve wines and dosed in extra-dry (less than 3g). I print the date of harvest and disgorgement on the back label and I guarantee these cuvées can age for long.”
You will find these wines in prestigious places around the world like Mandarin Oriental in Paris, Les Crayères in Reims, Pierre (Gagnaire) in Hong Kong … who appreciate these Champagnes for their right expression of the terroir!
Marie-Caroline Bourrellis
— Champagne Ulysse Collin —
Sur rendez-vous:
19, rue des Vignerons - 51270 Congy
Tél: +33 (0)3 26 52 46 62
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