Champagne Dosnon Ephemere

When Davy Dosnon founded his micro-négociant house in 2007, he made a single defining decision: every wine in the lineup — including the entry NV — would be fermented and aged exclusively in old Burgundian oak barrels sourced from Puligny-Montrachet producers, using only indigenous yeasts. No stainless steel, no cultured yeast, no concession to Champagne convention.

The vineyards sit at Avirey-Lingey in the Côte des Bar, approximately 40 km north of Chablis. Soils are hard limestone over Kimmeridgian and Portlandian clay-marl dense with fossilized Exogyra Virgula oysters — geologically identical to Chablis premier cru, and categorically unlike the chalk of Reims or Épernay. That marine-fossil subsoil drives the saline, oyster-shell minerality that defines the house.

The Éphémère is pressed in an ancient basket press using only the cuvée fraction; the taille is sold off. Fermentation — both alcoholic and malolactic — runs approximately 10 months in 228-litre, 500-litre, and 600-litre barrels, all minimum 5 years old, allowing micro-oxygenation without wood-tannin transfer. The wine is unfined and unfiltered, with dosage held to the house's characteristically low range.

What no peer in Champagne does at this scale: applying full-lineup barrel vinification with natural yeasts to a non-vintage blend, producing something closer to a still Kimmeridgian white with a secondary fermentation than a conventional Champagne. Each disgorgement batch reflects the base harvest's character rather than chasing house consistency.