Céline & Laurent Tripoz Crémant de Bourgogne Nature Brut Blanc 2020

Location: France, Burgundy

Winemaker: Céline & Laurent Tripoz

Grapes: Chardonnay

Soil: clay with broken down limestone

Winemaking: hand harvested grapes; fermented with indigenous yeasts. Aged in bottle for a minimum of 1 year. Zero sulfites. No dosage after disgorging.

From the Importer Selection Massale: The Tripoz’ Crémant de Bourgogne is 100% Chardonnay from various plots around the property. Laurent and Celine decided early on that they had to invest to make everything at the property instead of sending their juice to a "champagnisateur." After a few years of doing two versions, one with dosage and one without, they decided to make only one cuvee without any additions, dosage or otherwise, which has become one of the most successful sparkling wines of the region.

Céline and Laurent Tripoz started their domaine in 1986, selling grapes to the local cooperative before making their first wines in 1990. They became interested in organic and then biodynamic viticulture, converting the domaine very early on. Céline and Laurent are born into wine and their passion for good winemaking and conscious viticulture has made them key players in the region.

All the Tripoz vineyards are in or just outside of Loché, where the cellar is located. On eastern exposure, in clay loaded with limestone, the Tripoz believe that the only way to get a sense of terroir in their wine is to work in the most natural manner. “The Maconnais is not blessed with the great terroirs of northern Burgundy; we have to work harder to get good wines here,” Laurent says.

Over the years Tripoz has been exploring the usage of sulfur and absence of it in their cuvées. In 2017, Céline and Laurent of Tripoz began experimenting with the Macon Loché ‘Cuvée du Clocher’ by bottling a tiny bit of the wine with no sulfur -- the first year by chance was just 501 bottles. The wine was called >>501<< named after the first 501 bottles and the essential biodynamic preparation, horn silica (501).

Céline says the idea was not to create a new cuvée -- "we wanted to be able to compare the two methods for tasting, taking care to keep them in the same conditions, then to make them live the same things (travel, temperatures, salons,...). We also liked to taste them blind, without saying what the difference was between the two, and collect each other's impressions. It was very informative. We started this way again for 3 years (vintages 2018, 2019, and 2020). It is thanks to this experience that we have acquired more precise knowledge on the true role of very little SO2 in bottling and to determine more surely in the future the cuvées that will be able to do without it."