A Place, a Soil.
A Place    Along the canal side of the Marne, Mareuil-sur-Ay in an ideal place for hikers and nature lovers. During your loungings along the canal, you shall see some swans used to the presence of boaters and travelers coming for a halt. A bandstand, which has kept all its charm of yesterday, watching the end of the shaded promenade invite the way to a flowery walk. You shall have the opportunity to stroll along the flowered streets of the village and to meet the people. There a lot of treasures are waiting for you to be discovered. The castle of Mareuil, built in the 18th, in the style Pange's castle in Lorraine, belonged to Philoppe-Egalité from 1788 to 1792. In Mareuil, André Chénier met Aimée de Coigny, the « Young Captive » who was arrested in 1793. The proprety passed in 1830 to the eldest son of Marshal Lannes, the Duke of Montebello. In bypassing the Castle Montebello, recently ranked, you shall enter the courtyard of the Church of St Hilaire, with its belfry, renovated in 2004. Then you shall follow one of the most rewarded for its flowers alley. In the middle of the vineyards and at the top of a hill, a statue of the holy Virgin dominates Mareuil-sur-Ay. There, you will discover a fantastic view of the Marne, and on Mareuil-sur-Ay, the wine vineyards and a part of the champenoise plain. |
A Soil         The personality of Champagne, unique wine in its characteristics and quality, results from a double influence : the soil and the natural conditions. Champagne country counts 318 crus of which 17 are classified "Grand Cru" and 44 "Premier Cru". The ground and the underground of a vineyard create with the climate and the orientation, what is called in French « Terroir », the soil. The study of each soil makes possible the understanding of personality of the wines. The vineyard is situated in a chalky and clayish soil. Its roots do not sink in depth. The rests of fossils make calcareous clays of strong nutritious powers. The chalk of champagne, made of skeletons of shellfish, is a natural water tank. This is what justifies the adage : « There is Champagne only from Champagne ! ».  Our vineyard is planted on the beautiful land of Mareuil-sur-Ay (Premier Cru), Avize (Grand Cru) and Avenay Val d'Or (Premier Cru), and products a very representative Champagne. It is characterized by fine and persistent bubles, and a great elegance and delicacy. It's in the privacy of our cool cellars, carved into the stones of Champagne, that our wines grow older during many years. They grow between the magical and friendly moment of the harvest, and the moment of disgorgement and dosage, final stages of the long cycle of winemaking. For if the Champagne remains the timeless and unmatched symbol of a party, it is nevertheless the most delicate wine to develop.  Passion, art of making, respect for tradition and nature, patience, and love of a job well done, could summing up in a few words, the philosophy of our House. |