Union Grand Cru (2022)

The domaine calls Union the genesis of its story: the union of two people, Aurore Casanova and Jean-Baptiste Robinet, and of two grand cru terroirs. MSO and PSLX are its shorthand for them: Le Mesnil-sur-Oger on the Côte des Blancs, south of the Marne, and Puisieulx on the Montagne de Reims, north of it.

The Chardonnay comes from the lieu-dit Rose et Jutées in Le Mesnil, fine brown earth over chalk facing south and east, from vines planted in 1980, 1991 and 1996. The Pinot Noir comes from Les Petites Vignes in Puisieulx, clay and silt over hard limestone facing east, planted in 1969 and 1988. Both parcels are certified organic, worked to the biodynamic calendar and picked by hand at full ripeness.

In the cellar the grapes go onto a traditional press with a stainless-steel tray, ferment spontaneously and rest on their lees in barrels without racking. The Chardonnay of two or three harvests is blended with the Pinot Noir in one form only: the perpetual reserve of the Puisieulx parcel, started in 2016 and topped up every year since. The same reserve makes the liqueur for the extra-brut dosage, the approach the domaine uses for the parcel's own blanc de noirs.

This release is built on the 2022 harvest with that reserve and came to 5569 bottles.

The oldest Pinot Noir in it was planted by Aurore's mother in 1969, more than four decades before the domaine had a name.