Coessens

The history of Champagne Coessens

Ville-sur-Arce was documented as a winegrowing community as early as the 12th century, and the Largillier site appears in historical records as early as 1384. The Coessens family has grown vines there for five generations, on the slopes overlooking the Arce Valley south of Troyes. Through a series of parcel exchanges, Jérôme Coessens’s grandfather brought Largillier together as an exclusive family holding, making this contiguous vineyard site a property unlike any other in the region.

Alain Coessens, Jérôme’s father, made a few bottles of wine but sold most of his harvest to the major Champagne houses. Jérôme chose a different path: after seven years as vineyard manager for a major Champagne group, he took over the family estate, moved its operations to the edge of the village, closer to the vines, and decided in 2006 to establish his own house. The first bottles were presented in 2009, a year after his wife Valérie joined him at the estate. Recognition came quickly; for several years, Guillaume Selosse, son of Anselme, even made a cuvée from Largillier grapes. In 2021, the couple acquired a vineyard in Les Riceys, opening a new chapter marked by the Pinotmaniac cuvée in 2025—the year their son Grégoire also joined the venture.

The terroirs and vines of Champagne Coessens

Largillier takes its name from its clay content, which ranges from 25 to 35%. Soil pits dug in 2011 revealed a marly Kimmeridgian subsoil, with alternating layers of clay and limestone whose exposure and structure closely mirror those of the finest parts of Chablis. The clay lends body and roundness on the palate, while the limestone gives the wines their mineral character and long, saline finish. This relatively infertile soil naturally limits vine vigor and encourages the grapes to ripen fully.

These analyses led Jérôme Coessens to divide the family’s exclusive holding into four subparcels named for their sensory expression: Minéral, Fruit, Fleur and Matière. Each yields a wine with a distinct personality and forms the basis of a different cuvée. The vines, propagated through massal selection and planted in the 1970s and 1980s, are more than thirty years old and consist exclusively of Pinot Noir. Tilling between the rows encourages deep rooting, grass cover controls vigor, and vineyard practices aim to minimize intervention, with organic certification since 2021. The vineyard in Les Riceys, acquired in 2021, adds four new Kimmeridgian parcels: Valmolin, La Gueule de Valmolin, L’Envers de Valmolin and Le Grand Valpreuse.

Winemaking at Champagne Coessens

The cellar philosophy is deliberately minimalist, extending the approach taken in the vineyard. Each subparcel is harvested and vinified separately; only then does Jérôme Coessens decide whether to blend the wines before further aging. Fermentation relies on native yeasts and almost always takes place in stainless steel tanks, a neutral vessel that lets the character of the site come through. The notable exception is Les Sens Boisés, which ferments in four- to five-year-old Chablis barrels that have been reused several times to avoid any dominant oak influence.

The wines are vintage-dated, with no reserve wine apart from the solera begun in 2006. This perpetual reserve, kept in stainless steel, involves drawing off a portion each year and replenishing it with wine from the following vintage, creating a blend with equal contributions from every year. Malolactic fermentation is generally carried out to soften the aromas. Aging on the lees ranges from twenty-nine months for the signature cuvée to more than fifty months for the most ambitious wines, with restrained dosage ranging from zero to nine grams per liter, depending on the cuvée. Production remains very limited, at fewer than fifteen thousand bottles per vintage.

The cuvées of Champagne Coessens

Largillier Blanc de Noirs Brut: the house’s signature cuvée, from the central Fruit and Fleur subparcels, which have the most clay. It has a rounded, full-bodied feel, aromas of ripe fruit, small white flowers and licorice, and a creamy, generous palate underpinned by distinct minerality. Around twenty-nine months on the lees and a carefully adjusted dosage bring out the fruit’s fullness.

Largillier Brut Nature: made with no dosage from the Minéral subparcel, and only in vintages the winemaker considers sufficiently rich. This champagne has taut salinity and a pronounced mineral backbone, with notes of flint, tart cherry and plum, a dense texture and an appealingly bitter finish. A wine for enthusiasts, worth cellaring.

Largillier Rosé de Saignée Brut: one of Champagne’s finest saignée rosés, from the Matière subparcel. The grapes, picked at full phenolic ripeness, are trodden underfoot using the traditional method, and the juice takes on color through contact with the skins. Small red berries, raspberry eau-de-vie and cherry pit, with a vinous structure and a long, silky finish. Just three thousand bottles in the years it is made.

Largillier Millésime Extra-Brut: also from the Matière subparcel, which gives the wines their greatest depth, this cuvée spends considerably longer on its lees—around forty months or more. Ripe yellow fruit, spicy aromas, a generous, expressive palate and a lingering saline finish. The fullest expression of the vintage at Largillier.

Largillier Les Sens Boisés Extra-Brut: the estate’s only cuvée to see oak, fermented in previously used Chablis barrels and kept in barrel until the May before bottling. It is the most Burgundian champagne in the range: mirabelle plum, sourdough and a hint of vanilla, with a creamy, lingering palate and a delicately saline finish. Around two thousand bottles per vintage.

Largillier Exogyre Extra-Brut: the estate’s only non-vintage cuvée, made from the solera begun in 2006. Long sold as Caresse d’Automne, it was renamed in 2020 after the marine fossils in the subsoil. It blends the four subparcels—Minéral, Fruit, Fleur and Matière—and spends more than fifty months aging on racks. Ripe exotic fruit, honey and dried apricot, with a remarkably complex, minty finish.

Pinotmaniac Blanc de Noirs Extra-Brut: the house’s first champagne from outside Largillier, made from the Les Riceys vineyard acquired in 2021 and first vinified in 2022. It blends the Valmolin, La Gueule de Valmolin, L’Envers de Valmolin and Le Grand Valpreuse parcels, all on Kimmeridgian soils. A delicate nose of wild rose and hawthorn develops into brandied sour cherry, followed by a smooth entry, grapefruit-juice flavors and a supple, caressing texture.

Coteaux Champenois rouge Vendange Égrappée: a vintage still wine from the Matière subparcel, made with guidance from Burgundy winemaker Yves Confuron of Domaine Confuron-Cotetidot. Fully destemmed grapes yield a precise Pinot Noir with pure fruit and a fine structure, produced in just a few hundred bottles.

Coteaux Champenois rouge Vendange Entière: a counterpart to the preceding wine, fermented with whole clusters from the same parcel and vintage. The stems bring structure, spice and added tension, creating a wilder, more tannic style that highlights the kinship between Ville-sur-Arce’s Kimmeridgian terroir and Burgundy.