Champagne Suenen ‘OIRY’ Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru NV
Location: France, Champagne, Côtes des Blancs
Winemaker: Aurelien Suenen
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
Soil: lower Campanian chalk
Winemaking: Aged about 9 months in neutral oak, demi-muid, and concrete eggs. Aged another 2 years on the fine lees in bottle.
Disgorged: 2022
Dosage: 3g/L
From us at M&L: Oiry is Aurelien’s single cru bottling from the lieu-dit Oiry. Bracingly fresh with pretty, exotic fruits and white flowers. Perfect for morning-onward drinking into charcuterie hour.
Aurelien’s family dates back to the 1800s, when they were collecting and selling grapes to coops and champagne houses in the Cramant region. His great-grandfather and -mother were the first to bottle their own champagne under the family name; their sons, and by the mid-20th century Aurelien’s father, Daniel, had continued the tradition. It was Daniel who began making vintage-dated wine under Champagne Suenen. Aurelien took over in 2009 and immediately began converting the estate to organics.
Though Suenen cultivates a small amount of Pinot Noir and Meunier, Aurelien focuses on Blanc des Blancs, capturing the nuances of different Chardonnay expressions through the chalk diversity in the soils between parcels located in Oiry, Chouilly, and Cramant. He isn’t one to go by rhetoric or dogma when it comes to winemaking and vineyard cultivation; Aurelien simply knows what works best for the health of the vines and soils, and how this will translate in the balance and purity of flavor of the eventual wine. He employs some biodynamic treatments when he deems them appropriate. He chooses to vinify mostly in enameled steel tank, though he’s been delving into foudre with Stockinger barrels. Only native yeasts are employed; all malolactic occurs only naturally.
His Blanc de Blancs are a superb exercise in precision and beauty. Don’t miss them.
Location: France, Champagne, Côtes des Blancs
Winemaker: Aurelien Suenen
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
Soil: lower Campanian chalk
Winemaking: Aged about 9 months in neutral oak, demi-muid, and concrete eggs. Aged another 2 years on the fine lees in bottle.
Disgorged: 2022
Dosage: 3g/L
From us at M&L: Oiry is Aurelien’s single cru bottling from the lieu-dit Oiry. Bracingly fresh with pretty, exotic fruits and white flowers. Perfect for morning-onward drinking into charcuterie hour.
Aurelien’s family dates back to the 1800s, when they were collecting and selling grapes to coops and champagne houses in the Cramant region. His great-grandfather and -mother were the first to bottle their own champagne under the family name; their sons, and by the mid-20th century Aurelien’s father, Daniel, had continued the tradition. It was Daniel who began making vintage-dated wine under Champagne Suenen. Aurelien took over in 2009 and immediately began converting the estate to organics.
Though Suenen cultivates a small amount of Pinot Noir and Meunier, Aurelien focuses on Blanc des Blancs, capturing the nuances of different Chardonnay expressions through the chalk diversity in the soils between parcels located in Oiry, Chouilly, and Cramant. He isn’t one to go by rhetoric or dogma when it comes to winemaking and vineyard cultivation; Aurelien simply knows what works best for the health of the vines and soils, and how this will translate in the balance and purity of flavor of the eventual wine. He employs some biodynamic treatments when he deems them appropriate. He chooses to vinify mostly in enameled steel tank, though he’s been delving into foudre with Stockinger barrels. Only native yeasts are employed; all malolactic occurs only naturally.
His Blanc de Blancs are a superb exercise in precision and beauty. Don’t miss them.
Location: France, Champagne, Côtes des Blancs
Winemaker: Aurelien Suenen
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
Soil: lower Campanian chalk
Winemaking: Aged about 9 months in neutral oak, demi-muid, and concrete eggs. Aged another 2 years on the fine lees in bottle.
Disgorged: 2022
Dosage: 3g/L
From us at M&L: Oiry is Aurelien’s single cru bottling from the lieu-dit Oiry. Bracingly fresh with pretty, exotic fruits and white flowers. Perfect for morning-onward drinking into charcuterie hour.
Aurelien’s family dates back to the 1800s, when they were collecting and selling grapes to coops and champagne houses in the Cramant region. His great-grandfather and -mother were the first to bottle their own champagne under the family name; their sons, and by the mid-20th century Aurelien’s father, Daniel, had continued the tradition. It was Daniel who began making vintage-dated wine under Champagne Suenen. Aurelien took over in 2009 and immediately began converting the estate to organics.
Though Suenen cultivates a small amount of Pinot Noir and Meunier, Aurelien focuses on Blanc des Blancs, capturing the nuances of different Chardonnay expressions through the chalk diversity in the soils between parcels located in Oiry, Chouilly, and Cramant. He isn’t one to go by rhetoric or dogma when it comes to winemaking and vineyard cultivation; Aurelien simply knows what works best for the health of the vines and soils, and how this will translate in the balance and purity of flavor of the eventual wine. He employs some biodynamic treatments when he deems them appropriate. He chooses to vinify mostly in enameled steel tank, though he’s been delving into foudre with Stockinger barrels. Only native yeasts are employed; all malolactic occurs only naturally.
His Blanc de Blancs are a superb exercise in precision and beauty. Don’t miss them.