Marie Courtin

History of Champagne Marie Courtin

The estate was founded in the mid-2000s, going against the grain of the Champagne region’s approach. While the region built its reputation on blending villages, grape varieties and vintages to ensure a consistent style, Dominique Moreau decided to do exactly the opposite: make Champagnes from a single plot, a single grape variety and a single vintage, without dosage, so that each bottle tells the story of a specific year and place. Her first harvest under this label was in 2005.

The estate’s name is a family tribute: Marie Courtin was Dominique’s grandmother, a strong-willed woman of the land from whom she inherited her determination. Based in Polisot with her husband Roland Piollot, a fifth-generation winegrower who runs his own house, she shares the cellar while operating her label entirely independently. Conversion to organic farming began from the outset, with certification obtained in 2010, followed by a complete transition to Demeter-certified biodynamics and trials of homeopathic treatments in the vineyard. Today, the next generation is carrying on the venture: her daughter Jeanne Piollot has founded her own estate, Dame Jeanne, a few miles away in Burgundy’s Châtillonnais.

Terroirs and Vines of Champagne Marie Courtin

Polisot lies at the southernmost edge of Champagne, in the Côte des Bar, closer to Chablis than to Épernay or Reims. This matters: the bedrock here is Kimmeridgian limestone, exactly the same as in the Chablis region, with bands of Portlandian limestone in some areas. Combined with slightly milder temperatures than in the north of the region, these clay-limestone soils produce rich, textured Pinot Noirs that retain remarkable acidity and salinity.

All the estate’s grapes come from a single, east- and southeast-facing hillside covering two and a half hectares. The vines were planted in the 1970s by Dominique Moreau’s father-in-law using massal selection, ensuring considerable genetic diversity within the plot itself. They are now forty to fifty years old. Pinot Noir predominates, alongside small plantings of Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc and a few vines of nearly forgotten varieties such as Arbane. Position on the hillside is itself a winemaking criterion: the upper slope, yielding lighter, more taut wines, supplies one cuvée, while the lower slope, yielding more powerful, deeper wines, supplies another. Yields are deliberately low, harvesting is entirely by hand, and ripeness is paramount, since no sugar will be added at bottling to soften the edges.

Winemaking at Champagne Marie Courtin

The cellar follows the same approach as the vineyard: each cuvée is vinified separately in a vessel chosen to reveal a particular facet of the same fruit. Dominique Moreau uses stainless steel tanks, epoxy-lined tanks, 225-liter barrels and, in recent years, amphorae, whose shape keeps the lees in suspension and lends a distinctive texture. She is dogmatic about none of them: the vessel is a tool, not a religion.

Fermentation is carried out with native yeasts selected from her own vines and then cultured separately. The same yeasts also drive secondary fermentation in the bottle, an exceptionally rare practice in Champagne. The wines spend a long time on the lees, from twenty-four to thirty-six months, sometimes three years or more, before disgorgement without any dosage. The entire range is thus undosed extra brut. Several cuvées are even made without any added sulfur. Total production remains tiny, at around fifteen thousand bottles a year across all cuvées. Dominique Moreau recommends serving her Champagnes in standard white-wine glasses, giving them room to open up with air.

The Cuvées of Champagne Marie Courtin

Résonance, Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut: the estate’s founding cuvée, 100% Pinot Noir from the upper hillside, where the soils are lightest. It ferments entirely in stainless steel tanks and spends around twenty-four months aging on the lees before disgorgement without dosage. The result is an electric, finely etched champagne with fresh red fruit, chalk and bracing salinity, showing Côte des Bar Pinot Noir in its most direct expression. A superb introduction to the house’s wines.

Efflorescence, Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut: the barrel-aged counterpart to Résonance, also 100% Pinot Noir but sourced from the lower hillside, an area Dominique Moreau considers to have greater power and potential. Fermentation and aging take place in previously used 225-liter barrels, followed by thirty-six months aging on the lees. Greater oxygen exchange yields a generous, textured wine with orchard fruit, chalk and subtle spice, and an almost Burgundian character. It is the estate’s benchmark cuvée.

Concordance, Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut Sans Soufre: 100% Pinot Noir from thirty-five- to forty-year-old vines on Kimmeridgian soils, fermented in tanks with native yeasts and without a single addition of sulfur, from pressing through disgorgement. After around three years aging on the lees and with no dosage, the wine opens up while still very young with tropical fruit and herbal notes, displaying the depth and purity that have earned Dominique Moreau her reputation as a winemaker. One of the region’s rare Champagnes made without added sulfur.

Éloquence, Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut: the estate’s small-production Chardonnay, fermented and aged in oak. The wine evokes a sparkling Meursault, with ripe orchard fruit, deep mineral notes and a creamy texture, always without dosage. Produced in minute quantities, this cuvée shows that Chardonnay from the Côte des Bar has something to say, too.

Présence, Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut: the range’s only blended cuvée, made from around two-thirds Chardonnay grown on Portlandian soils and one-third Pinot Blanc grown on Kimmeridgian soils, from vines planted using massal selection. Fermented in epoxy-lined tanks with native yeasts and made without added sulfur, it is floral and zesty, with depth of white and yellow fruit, citrus curd and white flowers. As the winemaker puts it, Pinot Blanc brings body, aroma and personality.

Indulgence, Rosé de Macération Extra Brut: the house’s signature rosé, made from foot-crushed Pinot Noir macerated for around three days. Its color is deep, more copper than salmon, and the wine offers vibrant red fruit against a pronounced mineral backbone. Undosed like the rest of the range, it is a highly sought-after rosé for the table, a world away from conventional aperitif rosés.

Allégeance, Rosé de Macération Extra Brut Sans Soufre: Indulgence’s twin, made using the same maceration method but fermented in tanks without any added sulfur. Denser and wilder, it combines tart red fruit with remarkable spicy depth. A rare bottle for lovers of vibrant Champagnes.

The amphora-aged cuvées: in recent years, Dominique Moreau has experimented with aging in amphorae, producing a Blanc de Noirs from directly pressed Pinot Noir and a Blanc de Blancs, both in extremely limited quantities. The wines spend up to nearly three years in the amphorae, whose shape keeps the lees in suspension and adds texture. They are more open and immediately appealing than the other cuvées, yet still undosed. Some exceptionally limited releases also bring together Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Arbane, a nearly vanished Champagne grape variety, in a collectible blanc de blancs.