CHAMPAGNE DOSNON
Today, let’s travel to the southern region of Champagne, heading south from Reims, as if we were on a roadtrip to Chablis. Just 30 minutes before we arrive in Chablis, we find ourselves in Côte des Bars, the home of Dosnon Champagne, and a region seasoned for centuries in both international and local conflict, but it’s the local variety that really stings and can be soul shifting.
It’s here that we start the story of Davy Dosnon, an underdog. Dosnon Champagne (pronounced doe-non) is a house doing lots of incredible things, but perhaps none more so than coming into existence. Davy is a self made vigneron, bereft of a winemaker’s typical ancestral bloodline and doing what most would say is quite impossible. Yet to understand how a young man like Davy got it in his mind to endeavor this madness, you need to understand the backdrop. Continue reading the story below.
We featured the, Recolte Blanche, a cuvee of 100% Chardonnay as one of our initial wines in our Champagne Club. It was very well received as a Blanc des Blancs that displays incredible minerality with a very focused linear component to it. With it being so close to Chablis and grown in the same Kimmeridgian soil there is no wonder the reference “Chablis with bubbles” is often used as a description.
The second wine, Recolte Noire, is more of what you would come to expect from the Cote des Bar - a wine made from 100% Pinot Noir. Again grown on the Kimmeridgian soil, its a wine that offers a red fruit profile that comes with the roundness and mouthfeel that pinot noir delivers.
I think what I love most about both of these wines is they are true to their varietal. The Chardonnay is fresh and lean with a razor sharp freshness that I always look for in White Burgundy. The Pinot Noir is more giving, the red fruit really shines here but again a wine that is very straight and precise. In short, I really like both wines and think you will really enjoy them as well. There are a lot of new and exciting wines being produced in the Cote des Bar these days and these are two examples of how a producer with a Burgundy mindset is making Champagne. Both come very highly recommended.
— STORY —
In 1908, an attempt was made by the French government, influenced by northern executors out of Reims, to exclude Côte des Bars from Champagne. Behind the polite and gentlemanly business of making the “Drink of Kings,” the region had been simmering with tension and resentment.
South of Reims lay Troyes, the defacto capital of Champagne since the time of the Romans. But Troyes was growing much further away from Reims than the geography belies. Philosophical and political worlds were separating these regions as southerners labored to farm and ship the grapes, disappearing into the wines of the most illustrious Champagne houses….far north. Political positions sharpened against one another and anger grew when some Champagne houses began using grapes from regions outside of Champagne, even Germany and Spain, after the Phylloxera crisis. An already struggling caste was now desperate and deeply impoverished.
Into this cauldron of volatile fuel was thrown a match in the form of a detached and clueless decree from the French government declaring that Côte des Bars was excluded from the Champagne AOC, any economic benefits and/or protections. Riots developed overnight and the turmoil lasted for years.
Of course, we all know now that the the decree was ultimately reversed and Côte des Bars remains a part of Champagne, but even today, the distrust remains. Residents of Côte des Bars feel strongly about their freedom and independence. There is a can-do, will-do, don’t tell me what to-do attitude.
Onto this stage strolls Davy Dosnon. The domaine of Dosnon, started in 2007, is not yet 20 years old but has a very clear differentiation and vision: “making great wines…. to offer great champagnes.” Nicolas Laugerotte joined a few years later to develop the trade and together they are creating a new model for small, artisanal Champagne houses.
Davy is no different than other residents of Cotes Des Bar who feel they have more in common with Burgundy than the famed chalky soils of the northern regions. Worlds apart, not just in the mindset, but the terroir too. The Kimmeridgian dirt makes the Burgundy influence double!
Kimmeridgian soil is the type of limestone remaining in that area of the Parisian basin, which used to be a tropical sea during the Jurassic area. Today, the soil is still rich in sediments laid out in a stack of plates of marls (calcium carbonate and clay) and marly limestones (and an abundant presence of a small comma-shaped oyster, the Exogyra Virgula), typically known to bring freshness and minerality to the wine; something that has come to define the wines from Chablis just 40km away. The soil here produces powerful, delineated, pure Champagne .
The Dosnon domaine cultivates 2.5 hectares in “agriculture raisonnée”, i.e. reasonable agriculture, as its name indicates, agricultural aimed at optimizing both production and sustainability. In practical terms, this means they add no chemical fertilizer, they rake, plow, and use green cover in the plots to enhance soil microbial life. In addition, they also buy 5 hectares from vine growers sharing their values. As the house loves single-varietals, you will find mostly pinot noir and chardonnay on their plots. The typicity of the terroir brings us to a point we made earlier: Davy Dosnon and Nicolas Laugerotte are Burgundyphiles. They talk about their Champagnes as wine. Nicolas says “my wine is a great wine with bubbles, rather than bubbles with some wine”. Indeed, Recolte Blanche could be Chablis with bubbles.
Like many other great white producers, Dosnon believes in aging the wines in oak barrels to allow them to develop all their complexity. Specifically, they prefer barrels made by Coquard, the traditional 228 liter size, acquired from Puligny-Montrachet producers. They are never new barrels, but instead at least 5 years old, so they don’t transfer tannins or wood aromas but do allow for the transfer of oxygen, which is essential in the development process. Dosage is kept very low to preserve finesse and purity, and blending is done in single-varietal reserve wines of each of the “noble” grapes of Champagne, ie. pinot noir and chardonnay. Like all champagne, the wines are aged on lees from 20 months to 10 years depending on the cuvee.
Though Nicolas Laugerotte is not opposed to a festive champagne moment, he would like you to experiment with food pairing, like you would any wine. First and foremost, focus on what you are actually drinking until you arrive at that “wow” moment when you say “what is this?... because I need more!”