AGING

Wines from Les Barres require special attention and understanding. Meunier grapes produce wine that often presents a texture and aromas that are imposing, masking the saltiness of the terroir. The wines are processed in 228 litre barrels with an elevated oxygen exchange. 

This promotes the wine's mineralisation, which slowly makes the varietal aromas disappear in favour of saltiness (the stable fraction of the wine). No topping-up is done from fermentation until March (approximately), in order to promote this mineralisation. Under its veil, the wine protects itself from the oxygen, thus revealing the salty charm of the chalky soils.

MATURATION 

Les Barres is an atypical Champagne, with a distinctive evolution. It absorbs oxygen and opens up, while in a dark, shady, almost humid atmosphere. The aromas are not frank; they are marked by notes of undergrowth and humus. The saline texture broadens as it ages, leaving almost no room for the organic fraction and the delicate orange fruit that could be perceived during the first years of this Champagne. 

ABOUT US

In the 7th century, the villages' wine growers, situated in Merfy, drew on the heritage of the Benedictine monks from the abbey of Saint Thierry. Generation after generation, Merfy's wine growers, together with the abbey, shaped the viticultural landscapes of our hillsides, meticulously separating each plot according to its geological origins, soils, subsoils, etc. Names were subsequently inscribed on maps of the village, and these became the "lieu-dits," which today nourish the roots of the vines growing there.

A FAMILY HERITAGE

The traces of the wine growers in our family go back to 1490, with Nicolas Taillet, and Fiacre Taillet in 1540. By 1700, a second Fiacre Taillet, an erudite wine grower, was writing his memoirs recounting his lifework, as well as all the important events of the village, the family and his profession. The Chartogne-Taillet family continues this tradition of writing and savoir-faire inherited from this legacy of wine growing.

A SAVOIR-FAIRE & PASSION

Understanding, by way of the saltiness, the textures, the lengths and the tastes, that wine's origins, from which soil and subsoil the vine has drawn its strength and its knowledge. We are the guarantors of this knowledge, to be passed on from one generation to another, from one bottle to the next. Today, our gestures are guided by this transmitted know-how, and we adapt the Benedictines' winemaking practices to the new effervescence of the Champagne region.