TEXTURE

The Sainte Anne cuvée is the sensory translation of wines from the different soils of the village of Merfy. Each of the village's plots contributes part of its identity to "create" this cuvée. Sainte Anne's textures are revealed throughout the entire length on the palate. Often initially opulent on the palate, the salts from the sands then give rise to a salivating bitterness. The finish leaves a tight structure that recalls the origin of Champagne wines.

RESERVE WINE

The Sainte Anne cuvée is a blend of several harvest years. Its composition is often 50% wines from the year preceding its bottling, and 50% older wines, in reserve for 2 to 5 years. 

AGING  

Sainte Anne is now aged and vinified in 228-, 350- and 2000-litre barrels. A small portion of this Champagne has been aged in tanks, mostly the reserve wines. The Champagnes of our village need oxygen to deliver the message indicative of their origins. Each plot is vinified differently (topped-up or not, casks of different provenances, etc.). 

This enables us to obtain unique and identifiable characteristics from this period in the life of our Champagnes. Once the aging of wines from each plot has been completed, we combine these different reflections of the village to create a blend that aims to be fully representative of Merfy's wines. We seek the crystalline texture emblematic of wines from Merfy's sandy limestone terroirs, to preserve our village's unique identity.

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.