Welcome to my life in Champagne. A long tome ago, Champagne icon Michael Edwards told me, that to really understand champagne (the wine), one should go live in Champagne (the region) for a while. I I listened, packed up my stuff and moved to Hautvillers. The plan was to stay for six to eight months and get to the bottom of why so few champagne producers were talking about terroir in 2011. I found the answer to my question relatively quickly, but as so often, that answer led to more questions. And now fourteen years later, my roots are firmly planted in Hautvillers, the village I have now lived longer than any other place before in my life. I think I finally grasped what Michael meant: knowing requires a personal investment, a willingness to keep peeling the layers of the onion to try to get to the core. But demystifying champagne is about as realistic as Godot making an appearance in “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Becket.
Champagne will always be an impregnable conundrum, just like the stars alluded to by Dom Perignon (allegedly) to describe the magic he felt when first tasting the bubbles. Nonetheless, like in astronomy, knowledge is attainable when the subject is divided into smaller chunks. My champagne galaxy focuses on organic, biodynamic and regenerative farming practices, as I firmly believe the soil needs to be brimming with life, for us to taste the uniqueness of the terroir all the way to the glass.
For those of you who want to join my Champagne odyssey, and learn more about terroir and organic champagne, here are a few ways to board my spaceship.