Alliae

When Davy Dosnon founded his micro-négociant house in 2007, he made a single defining decision: every wine in the range — including this entry-level NV blend — would be fermented and aged exclusively in old Burgundian oak barrels with indigenous yeasts, a practice virtually unheard of across a full Champagne lineup. The Alliae is the house's calling card: ~70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, incorporating approximately 30% reserve wines.

The vineyards sit in Avirey-Lingey, Côte des Bar, on hard limestone over Kimmeridgian and Portlandian clay-marl packed with fossilized Exogyra Virgula oysters — the same geological substrate as Chablis premier cru, located just 40 km to the south, and fundamentally unlike the chalk of Reims or Épernay. Vines average over 30 years old; yields are controlled by Cordon de Royat pruning.

Only the cuvée (first pressing) enters the cellar; the taille is sold off. Fermentation — both alcoholic and malolactic — runs entirely in 228-litre, 500-litre, and 600-litre barrels sourced from Puligny-Montrachet producers, all minimum five years old to deliver micro-oxygenation without wood tannin. Bottle aging runs a minimum of 20 months on lees; dosage is kept to 3–7 g/L. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

What no peer in the Aube does: treat a non-vintage blend with the full barrel-fermentation protocol reserved elsewhere for prestige cuvées, then bottle it without fining or filtration — making the Alliae a transparent window onto Kimmeridgian terroir rather than a house-style construct. Each disgorgement batch reflects the character of its base harvest year; expect saline, oyster-shell minerality, taut acidity, and restrained red fruit rather than the fruit-forward Aube archetype.