Champagne René Jolly, Côte des Bar
Pierre-Eric Jolly represents something of a dichotomy. On the one hand he’s a traditionalist, valuing time-honoured techniques and craftsmanship. On the other he’s an innovator, tirelessly looking for ways to do things differently. All in the quest for superior quality or improved sustainability.
The First Time I Met Pierre-Eric
I first met Pierre-Eric in 2014 at the London Wine Fair while I was working for ABS Wine Agencies. He’d just appointed us to be his new UK distributor.
Being born in similar vintages and sharing a similar sense of humour, we struck up an immediate rapport. I was hugely impressed with his range of Champagnes and found his entrepreneurial spirit highly inspiring. Consequently, I found it easy to promote and sell his story as well as his fabulous champagnes to my clients.
A Jolly Japanese Connection!
I clearly wasn’t the only one that formed this opinion. In Japan, they LOVE Pierre-Eric and his range. They were his biggest export customer for some years. Pierre-Eric has built a very special relationship with his importer and their customers, making annual sales trips.
His commitment and offer of hands-on support earned him some incredible culinary hospitality along with the solid sales.
My First Visit to René Jolly
I managed to co-ordinate a visit on my way back from a French adventure. I’d been cycling through Burgundy exploring the wines of small growers and burning calories pedalling around the rolling hills.
Pierre-Eric and his family had just arrived back from their summer holiday in the south of France, so we were all pretty relaxed!
We finally arrived in Landreville at 7.30pm, half an hour later than scheduled due to a satnav malfunction. Something that Google Maps was particularly adept at in France!
After the greetings and intros, Pierre-Eric took us around his set-up and gave us the full potted history. I recollected most of the back story, but nothing beats hearing it explained while walking through the cellars. Especially when you can visualise each stage of the elaboration process.
Some Fascinating Discoveries
There were a few new discoveries during our tour that particularly stood out for me. The first concerns the large automated 4000 Kg Coquard wine press and its significance.
The second is Pierre-Eric’s separate red winemaking cellar. The third is just how much influence the crown cap has on the champagne’s evolution as it goes through its second fermentation.
Pressing Matters!
When Pierre-Eric took over running the family estate in 2000, aged just 26, he received an ominous phone call. It was the CIVC (the champagne region’s governing body) to say that his father’s press was too small to be used for the 2001 harvest.
The implication was that they were being disallowed from pressing any grapes that year unless they purchased a larger press. Pierre-Eric immediately picked up the phone and contacted Coquard…
Coquard, the famous regional wine press manufacturer, had literally gone bust the year before! Their traditional basket presses had become outdated and subsequently displaced by a handful of competitors. Firms like Willmes, Vaslin and Bücher had flooded the market with their larger automated presses.
One of Coquard’s engineers, with the help of five colleagues, was gambling on a design he’d come up with. He managed to secure a loan from the bank and was able to build and trial a small prototype.
The trial was successful.
The engineer had just drawn up detailed plans of the new automated press when Pierre-Eric’s call came through.
The upshot is that Pierre-Eric placed an order within 15 minutes of being shown the plans. Coquard won their first order and Pierre-Eric secured a means to produce a harvest in 2001.
Coquard subsequently took orders for a further 4 or 5 presses in 2000. Now they sell 40 every year with a 3 year waiting list!
The Foundation of the Champagne Industry in 30 Seconds
Pierre-Eric explained in about 30 seconds how the Champagne industry was established and why it’s proven so successful. It was essentially built on three pillars. One representing the growers and champagne houses. One representing the engineers and manufacturers of winemaking equipment and the third pillar representing the banks that financed it all. Each party contributed equally in driving the industry forward.
How fitting that this system is still very much in play, just as it was 300 or so years ago.
Making Red Wine in Champagne? Pull the Other One
Believe it or not, the most common way to make a pink champagne is by adding a small amount of still red Pinot Noir.
These Rosé d’Assemblage champagnes are popular with producers because they do one of two things. Firstly, they increase the body and fruitiness of the champagne in a very controllable way. They also maintain a consistent, desirable colour, year in year out.
Pierre-Eric produces a still red Pinot Noir for this very purpose. However, he uses it not for one, but two rosé champagnes; his Rosé d’Assemblage and Cuvée RJ Rosé.
So good is his Pinot Noir that when he took over in 2000, he sold 400 litres to Champagne Mumm. They came back in 2002 for a further 2,000 litres. A few years later, they offered him a contract and said “if you build the vats, we’ll buy the wine”.
So in 2006, Pierre-Eric created a dedicated red wine cellar, separated from his main cellars. Something unheard of in Champagne.
Coincidentally, he had just planted some new vineyards to Pinot Noir too so the timing was fortuitous.
The cellar is now 15 years old, yet it still looks brand new. Pierre-Eric continues to supply Mumm, making him one of only five red wine suppliers to this famous house.
Adding Pinot Noir to the champagne during production increases body and fruitiness in a controllable way.
Crowning Glory – How Crown Caps Affect Champagne Evolution
Picture a regular bottle of beer with a metal crown cap. Pop the cap with an opener. There’s a hiss as the trapped air in the neck escapes and away you go. If, like me, you think that cap makes the perfect closure because it hermetically-seals the bottle, think again.
According to Pierre-Eric, the crown cap on a maturing champagne bottle actually allows a tiny amount of air inside. This then reacts with the yeast and further enhances the wine’s development. This is extremely important because if there is no air interaction, the champagne won’t taste nearly as good.
He goes on to explain that through a chemical process, the force of the CO2 pushing against the cap, as it tries to escape, actually allows the air into the bottle. “It’s like adding a sugar in your coffee, the coffee will go up because it’s sucked by the molecules, so the coffee is going up when you think it should go down”, he tells us.
It transpires there are around 40 different crown caps on the market today. Each one gives subtle differences to the final wine. In fact, the cap determines as much as 50% of the champagne’s flavour characteristics according to Pierre-Eric.
He’s trialled numerous caps against the one his father selected 40 years ago. Following detailed analyses available today, that wasn’t back then, Pierre-Eric chose to retain the original cap. No surprise that he has subsequently put his name to it so that it remains theirs.
“You can work however you want in the vineyard but the cap will do 50% of the work for you.”
Pierre-Eric Jolly
In over 25 years of working in the wine industry, including three representing some prestigious champagne brands, this was a real revelation. I’d never heard about the cap playing such a pivotal role in the champagne’s development. Pierre-Eric reassured me that this fact is little known, even within the region.
Let the Crowns Fly!
We finally reached the little bottling area in the 18th Century vaulted cellars. Pierre-Eric proceeded to give us a demonstration of disgorging the traditional way, ‘a la volée’.
Here’s a quick explanation about what exactly disgorgement ‘a la volée’ is:
A highly skilled procedure, disgorging bottles ‘a la volée’ requires strong wrists! The neck of the bottle is chilled slightly before the bottle is held downwards. As soon as it’s opened, the bottle is brought upright again in a very swift action. This minimises the loss of liquid and, at the same time, expels the sediment under the pressure.
Universally, the majority of bottle-fermented sparklers are disgorged mechanically, which is far quicker and easier.
Most growers will only resort to the bygone skill of ‘a la volée’ in two scenarios. Firstly, for their very old vintages where greater care is required. And secondly, for small and larger format bottles that won’t fit the machinery.
Pierre-Eric does this across all his champagnes which puts him firmly in the minority!
First-class Entertainment!
The first disgorged bottle expelled the yeast quickly and made an audible ‘pop’.
This was a special 100% Pinot Noir ‘Blanc de Noirs’ that had been aged for no less than 12 years (!!). It showed incredible development in both aroma and taste, yet still retained wonderful freshness. The mousse, in other words the sensation of bubbles, was very fine and soft.
The second disgorged bottle, Pierre-Eric’s top Editio cuvée (2006), didn’t quite go as planned. Let’s just say we all took a brief expensive shower!
Fortunately, the taste was sublime and Pierre-Eric invited me to carry both bottles up to the terrace for us all to enjoy. Well I was hardly going to say no!
