NV Ulysse Collin les Maillons Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut (2015 Base)

The bright straw yellow-hued NV Champagne Blanc De Noirs Les Maillons Extra Brut is from 2020, along with 2019 and 2018, three harvests that began in August. This is about 13.5% alcohol. More generous than Les Pierrières, Maillon is the wine that, if you are going to open it now, shows stunningly. The extract is compact, with no dilution in the wines, featuring notes of clafoutis, anise, citrus oils, and profound length. Full-bodied and fruity, it has a refined, elegant mousse that just gently accents the spice of the wine. Its red fruit and ripe citrus shine through, gaining focus, intensity, and resonant length. Drink over the coming 20 or more years. Full but compact and tailored, as it opens, it reveals pure and expressive notes of anise and graham spice, but nothing oxidative. A stunning wine. Olivier Collin is based in the Coteaux du Petit Morin, in the village of Congy. In the 1930s, his grandfather became the first récoltant-manipulant in the region, bottling only from his own vineyards and refusing to sell fruit to négociants. Olivier’s father sold the company in 1987, but in March 2003, Olivier and his family decided to reclaim a portion of the vineyards and begin making wine again. By that time, the health of the soils had deteriorated, so his first priority was to buy a tractor and start rebuilding them, and he was able to produce his first vintage in 2004. He prefers to work as naturally as possible, although he does not tie himself to the constraints of any organic or biodynamic certification. In the vineyard, he seeks high maturity in the fruit without allowing it to tip into over-ripeness. His approach emphasizes balance, natural yeasts, natural malolactic fermentations, low intervention, and the addition of sulfur only at the time of pressing before fermentation. The goal is always the same: to produce the best possible base wine with real gastronomic importance. In the cellar, everything is fermented in barrels, mostly used, and the dosage is kept very low, varying from 0.85 grams to 4 grams per liter, depending on what the wine needs. Recently, he has been extending aging on the lees and continues to push the boundaries of what he can achieve in the Coteaux du Petit Morin. In 2024, they lost 50% of Maillon to mildew, but they’re very happy with the resulting quality and density in the wines.

From a 2.5 ha vineyard of 50-year-old Pinot Noir. Disgorged March 2019. Big and bold on the nose with a winning, vaguely honeyed palate but notes of lime zest on the finish. Dosage 2.4 g/l. (JR) 17/20

Based on the 2014 vintage with the addition of 50% reserve wines from 2013, the NV Extra Brut Blanc de Noirs Les Maillons (2014) was disgorged in February 2017 with 2.4 grams per liter dosage after 36 months sur lattes. Bursting with aromas of pears, mint, red berries, tangerine and dried white flowers, it's full-bodied, broad and layered, with an enveloping attack that segues into a deep and concentrated core, girdled by lively acids and concluding with a long, precise and saline finish. Collin produced 18,000 bottles of this elegant but intense Blanc de Noirs. Les Maillons is a vineyard in the Sézannais that the Collin family planted, farmed and eventually inherited: running about one degree Celsius warmer than the Côte de Blancs, easterly expositions have the advantage over southerly in this part of Champagne.