Aurore Casanova

Aurore Casanova is a small Champagne domaine created in 2013 by Aurore Casanova and Jean-Baptiste Robinet, based in Mardeuil just outside Épernay. Aurore came to wine after a professional ballet career that took her from Bangkok to San Francisco; she left the stage of the Zurich Opera in 2011 to rejoin the family vines her mother had planted in 1968-69 on the Grande Montagne de Reims. Jean-Baptiste grew up in a Champagne winegrowing family and previously worked in the paramedical field designing carbon prosthetic feet; the two met in 2011 during viticulture and oenology training at Avize, and Jean-Baptiste spent a two-year apprenticeship with Fabrice Pouillon, where he first saw native-yeast barrel fermentations and worked the soil with a plough.

The domaine farms about 3.5 hectares of rented family parcels across four sectors: Puisieulx on the Montagne de Reims (Pinot Noir from massal selection and clones, plus Chardonnay, on silt over hard limestone), Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger on the Côte des Blancs (22 small Chardonnay parcels on chalk subsoil under fine brown earth or chalky colluvium), Champvoisy in the Vallée de la Marne (Meunier on brown marl), and Épernay. Farming excludes herbicides and synthetic insecticides, follows biodynamic principles, and was certified organic in 2023.

For its parcel champagnes the domaine describes one cellar approach: traditional pressing on a stainless press, spontaneous fermentations, and elevage on the lees in barrels without racking - 228 and 400 litre casks where sizes are given. It keeps per-parcel perpetual reserves - Pinot Noir since 2016, Chardonnays since 2017 - which both feed the blends and provide the liqueur for the extra-brut dosages. Bottling happens in July or August without fining or filtration. One brand profile puts production at around 15,000 bottles a year. The wines are released under the legal entity A&JB Casanova Robinet sas with negociant-manipulant registration NM-664-001.