Winegrowers’ portraits Pierry
This Champagne revives in the 80s under the best auspices. Renamed by Patrick Boivin, it takes the forename of the patron saint of the wine growers, the name of the constellation Virgo, and adds a particle, nobility of the village called Pierry la Cour [Court] in the XVIIIth century obliges.
As the chairman explains, this Champagne has three assets. The first: its terroir is historically considered excellent. According to the saying, “Pierry is stony”. Made of hills facing south, small stones mingle in the earth of the vines that produce a natural wine with gun-flint and flint flavours, giving honeyed aromas when ageing. On the soft slopes classed First Cru, the three grape varieties are present but here the Pinot Meunier is the king and majestically blooms.
To improve and cultivate the terroir, men are necessary. The co-op members, wine growers since several generations, care to plough the soil they enherited without looking at the clock and maintain it to revive the memory of their ancestors. Neighbours or cousins, they compose a great family. As Patrick Boivin underlines, “the cooperative has been created thanks to the will of these wine growers to craft their own wine, make something good. They work their vineyards like gardens”.
On the vinification side, the cooperative has a beautiful equipment: 5 presses, 2 traditional Coquard and 3 state-of-the-art Pera membrane presses, a new fermenting cellar with stainless steel vats and also a barrel cellar. As enologist
Sébastien Lapierre explains, here they operate plot selection and limit inputs. “To vinify the Pinot Meuniers and give them an unheard-of longevity, I block the malolactic fermentation of a part of the cuvée and I vinify it in wooden tuns where it will stay 12 months. Then it will be blended with wines that will have or not undergone malolactic fermentation in stainless steel vats. Our disgorgement liquor is made on a Pinot Meunier basis”. Sébastien wants to obtain wines expressing the terroir.
Patrick Boivin presents his favourite cuvée Coeur de Terroir 2004 Champagne Vincent d'Astrée.
37% of the 33,000ha of the Champagne region are planted with Pinot Meuner. But the Meuniers of Pierry have a special flavour. All the cuvées Brut Champagne Vincent d’Astrée are mainly composed of Pinot Meunier. Our favourite cuvée undoubtedly is Cœur de Terroir. It is produced, as its name says, only with the cœur de cuvée, it is a single cru, single variety Pinot meunier, vintage 2004, a great year; it expresses the very essence of this mythical terroir, by its geology, its Southern exposure, and its acidity-maturity ratio of anthology. A symphony of fruity, floral, honeyed, creamy notes to offer or treat oneself with for Christmas, to enjoy with the traditional medium-rare foie gras of Christmas eve. Remind the address…
Champagne Vincent d’Astrée
1 rue Carnot • 51530 PIERRY
Tél. : 03 26 54 03 23
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