Pouillon - Mareuil-sur-Ay

The Pouillon family has lived in Champagne for many centuries. In 1947 Roger Pouillon first established this Champagne house in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. In 1965 James took over from his father and managed the house together. Since 1998 Fabrice has started working in the family business after studying oenology and gaining valuable work experience in Bordeaux (Sauternes) and Burgundy (Chassagne and Santenay) in particular where he developed his ideas on oak fermentation and maturation. They cultivate the three main grape varieties and have prestigious old vineyards in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Aÿ as Grand Cru, and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Tauxieres, Mutigny, Avenay Val d’Or, Epernay and Festigny in 1er Cru. All farming is organic with grass cover and natural pesticides and herbicides.

Fabrice is in the process of converting some vineyard parcels in Mareuil to biodynamic. Average vine age is an impressive 30-35 years with older vines going into the more prestige cuvées. Also he has just commenced using a new Champagne cork - Mytik Diamant – which has been designed to reduce the dreaded cork taint. Mareuil-sur-Aÿ is the home of Billecart-Salmon and is a much under-rated village with a classificition of 99%. The wines are similar to neighbouring Aÿ, but with more finesse, elegance and much more reasonably priced. Finding good small growers in Aÿ is very difficult – the village is full of ‘big houses’ and hence command exorbitant prices. The overall quality of the growers in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ is very high indeed and there is no doubt that it is worthy of Grand Cru status.

Fabrice’s Champagnes can be found in many Michelin starred restaurants in Europe. Export only accounts for 20%, mainly to Belgium, Germany, Japan and a little to the U.S.