Wines

From the Latin “Yesterday-Today” in reference to the centuries of Coulon ancestors in the Champagne region, “Heri-Hodie” clearly displays the constancy of its terroir with a perpetual-reserve solera that goes back to 1995. Predominantly Pinot Meunier with touches of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, elected from vineyards situated in Vrigny, Coulommes la Montagne and Villers-Allerand. Aged for three years prior to being disgorged; a modest dosage of 3 g/l is applied at the time of disgorgement to render a fresh, floral, but still full-bodied and concentrated Champagne.

“L’Hommée” is named for a pre-Napoleonic unit of measure used in Champagne and Lorraine, referring to the amount of land a person could work in one day. It is a blend of 40% Pinot Meunier, 40% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir from the 1er cru villages of Vrigny and Pargny. The Chardonnay is fermented and aged in oak, while the Pinots are raised in steel, and the wine spends a lengthy five years on its lees before disgorgement. The current offering is a blend of two-thirds 2016 and one-third 2015 vintages, with a minimal dosage of 3 grams per liter. This is a Champagne deep in spirit and sumptuous, offering rich red fruits, classic brioche and vanilla-bean elements, and an incredibly concentrated, persistent, broad palate that rings with mineral energy.

A vintage cuvée produced exclusively from an equal proportion of Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir from an old vine parcel known as Les Linguets in Gueux planted in 1953, and the sloped, east-facing Limons lieu-dit in Vrigny. The wine is neither filtered nor fined after a minimum of 8 years of lees ageing. Rich and full-bodied on the palate, the luscious and expansive character of this wine’s red fruit completely absorbs the three g/l dosage. With notes of pain aux raisins, roasted coffee, and iodine, Coulon’s Blanc de Noirs is boldly vinous and straightforwardly delicious at the same time.

A blend of 20% Pinot Noir and 80% Chardonnay; from a single premier cru lieu-dit of Champs Chevalier in Vrigny. the Chardonnay is aged for one year in small barrels and undergoes malolactic fermentation; the wine then ages for an incredible 15 years in bottle on the lees, receiving a minimal dosage upon disgorgement. Coulon’s Héritage cuvée is a layered, contemplative, profoundly powerful wine. With a dazzling nose of honey, smoke, and fresh vanilla bean and a palate of strict minerality and incredible precision, this spellbinding effort will clearly evolve for a long time to come.

Coulon’s Esprit de Vrigny is thrillingly fine, taut, and mineral, but it displays great mouth-coating concentration and density. This Brut Nature is a perfect homage to the noble soils of their home of Vrigny, rendered as transparently as possible. From 3 parcels in the village on east-facing slopes: Chardonnay planted on limestone chalk, Pinot Noir planted on clay, and Meunier planted on Thanetian sand, blended in equal proportions. The wine ferments spontaneously in neutral oak barrels then ages in the barrels for 10 months.

In 2013, the Coulon family acquired their first parcel of grand cru: 0.22 hectares of 1976-planted Chardonnay in the Les Hauts Partas vineyard in the esteemed village of Chouilly, located in the northern sector of the Côte des Blancs immediately east of Épernay. The debut-vintage 2014 underwent spontaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in stainless steel, and spent a full year aging in used barrels before being bottled for secondary fermentation; it was disgorged with a scant two grams per liter of dosage in November 2019, after four years on the lees. Offering a combination of the plush power often associated with Chouilly and the stark clarity of fruit that is a house signature here, “Les Hauts Partas” presents a deep, clear, and gorgeous nose with a touch of gunflint underlying notes of fresh cream. Its palate is ringing and dynamic, with salt-sprinkled small-berried red fruits clinging to the palate for dear life and prompting salivation.

This Rosé de Saignée is marked by the elegance and delicacy of lightly-macerated Pinot Meunier sourced primarily from a 50-year-old plot in Vrigny, buttressed by a 30-year-old parcel in Gueux. Its pink raspberry hue is accompanied by pure red fruits, and the old vines lend sappy punch and further reinforce the wine’s joyful vinosity—an unabashed outpouring of Meunier at its best. Aged ten months on the lees before secondary fermentation and three years in bottle prior to disgorgement. An exceedingly rare wine from Coulon as a mere 50 cases make it to our shores once a year.

“Le Mont Moine” is pure Pinot Meunier from a 0.10-hectare plot of south-exposed 40-year-old vines in the premier cru village of Coulommes-la-Montagne. Stomped by foot, fermented whole-cluster, and produced without the addition of sulfur at any point, this cuvée spent two years in barrel—one new, and one significantly older. The vineyard’s sandy soils produce a wine of silky, caressing fruit, amplified here by an intense minerality that is particularly explicit on the vivid nose. Fresh, tingling tannins keep the palate energetic all the way through the very long finish.

“Les Champs Chevalier” is produced entirely from Pinot Noir planted in a clay-limestone vineyard in the Coulons’ home village of Vrigny. Like “Le Mont Moine,” this cuvée was foot-trodden, with no-destemming and no added sulfur, and it spent two years in 50% new oak before being bottled without fining or filtration. An utterly gorgeous rendering of Pinot Noir, “Les Champs Chevalier” possesses a haunting equilibrium, with acidity and tannins melding into one another perfectly, and fruit that feels as if it’s being offered lovingly on an outstretched palm.