All winemaking processes are very simple. Traditional wood Coquard press by gravity, light decanting, 0 additives or added sulphites, wild yeast fermentation in French oak barrels, with 12 months on lees in French oak barrels. No fining, no filtration and no enzyme. Bottling “sous liege” with manual riddling and disgorgement.

“Tirage au moût ” ??

Two new cuvees have evolved this year based on a very novel method of second fermentation.The traditional method of second fermentation involves the addition of a ‘designed yeast’ and sugar to create a new closed fermentation in the sealed bottle and trap the generated carbon dioxide gas as ‘the bubbles’ (Marine calls this tirage exogene since it uses products from outside the system). This process adds another 1.5% alcohol, resulting in up to 13.5% alcohol levels in the more prevalent warmer riper vintages. In this modified process used by Marine, unfermented grape juice (must)  is added for the tirage process. This is called ‘tirage au moût”.  Because you are using grape juice as part of the ratio, the alcohol level remains the same as the 1st fermentation. This unfermented grape juice is being stored in various ways. One method chills or freezes the grape juice and uses it when the bottling occurs roughly 12 months after the harvest. Marine has experimented with this and has designed a newer process using the juice from the next years harvest to do the tirage. This she calls ‘tirage endogene’, since it uses juice from the same vineyard and nothing external. Other growers have experimented with similar techniques, Fabrice Pouillon and Pascal Agrapart for example.

This may seem to be an overly complicated process, the end result being a wine that is ‘true to its terroir’, unadulterated by ‘exogenic products’ (sucrose, designer yeasts) at a comfortable alcohol level. With global warming providing riper earlier harvests, the subtle sugar/acid/phenolic balance may end up producing less focused high alcohol champagnes.