Coessens Largillier Coteaux Champenois Vendange Egrappee - Rouge

When Jérôme Coessens founded his domaine in 2006, he made a deliberate choice almost without precedent in Champagne: to produce still red wine from his monopole lieu-dit Largillier and to seek vinification counsel directly from Yves Confuron of Domaine Confuron-Cotétidot in Vosne-Romanée — importing Burgundian rigour into an appellation that rarely takes its still reds seriously.

The Matière (Substance) sub-parcel of Largillier sits on a south-east-facing slope in Ville-sur-Arce, Côte des Bar, over Kimmeridgian Marl No. 2 — alternating clay and chalk/limestone strata confirmed by 2011 excavations to be geologically identical to the finest Chablis Grand Cru sites.

The clay fraction delivers grip and body; the chalk drives the wine's long mineral finish.

The Vendange Égrappée protocol begins with full destemming, followed by a 15-day maceration. The wine then ages in old Burgundian oak barrels (4–6 years, zero new wood) for 33–41 months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. The deliberate avoidance of new oak preserves the Kimmeridgian mineral signature rather than masking it with toasty extraction.

What is genuinely unusual: this is a Coteaux Champenois rouge — a category so rare that fewer than a dozen producers release it commercially — sourced from a true monopole and aged longer than most Burgundy village wines.

The 2018 vintage in the Aube delivered generous ripeness with natural structural tension; the wine is approachable now but the clay-driven tannin frame and chalk minerality suggest a further 4–6 years of development.