Champagne Dosnon Recolte Noire

When Davy Dosnon founded his micro-négociant house in 2007, he made a single defining decision: every wine in the range — including this NV Blanc de Noirs — would be fermented and aged exclusively in old Burgundian barrels with indigenous yeasts, a practice virtually absent across a full Champagne lineup. Récolte Noire is 100% Pinot Noir, incorporating approximately 30% reserve wines, drawn from family parcels centered on Avirey-Lingey in the Côte des Bar, roughly 40 km north of Chablis.

The soils here are hard limestone over Kimmeridgian and Portlandian clay-marl, dense with fossilized Exogyra Virgula oysters — geologically identical to Chablis premier cru, bearing no resemblance to the chalk of Reims or Épernay. Vines average over 30 years old, pruned to Cordon de Royat for yield control, farmed without chemical fertilizers with biodynamic conversion underway since 2022.

Only the cuvée (first pressing) enters production via ancient basket press. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation both occur in 228-litre, 500-litre, and 600-litre Burgundian barrels — all minimum five years old — over approximately 10 months, followed by at least 24–36 months on lees in bottle. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered, with dosage held to 3–7 g/L. The special feature: a Blanc de Noirs achieving Chablis-like oyster-shell minerality and vinous texture through full barrel vinification — without a trace of wood tannin. Each disgorgement batch reflects the character of its base harvest year rather than a house-consistency target.