Family-style savoir-faire
Handmade wines
There aren't a hundred ways of making good wine says Francis Tribaut. Working the soil, optimal harvest dates, careful hand harvesting, gentle vinification, patient ageing...
Beyond that, Francis Tribaut wants to create a dialogue between Burgundy and Champagne: to infuse one region into the other! The methods of cultivation, vinification, ageing and in-house practices used in one region could then be applied in the other.
In Champagne, I haven't explored everything yet, insists Francis Tribaut. A deliberately limited production allows us to revive several ancestral techniques, such as “poignettage”. This method of suspending the lees in the bottle by gently shaking it, similar to the “bâtonnages” (stirring) used in Bourgogne’s great whites, produces champagnes with great depth and density on the palate.
In Champagne, La Malaurie offers a very limited number of cuvées. They are based mainly on the family domaine and grape purchase from the Côte des Blancs. Our blends are composed from a restricted number of small vineyards. With common grape varieties, the Burgundian notion of terroir has its counterpart in the chalky soils of Champagne.
I'm going back to school in Burgundy, jokes Francis Tribaut! La Malaurie concentrates its work on just a few parcels in the Côte de Beaune. It's a fantastic playground for a huge diversity of flavours. The Champagne touch comes in particular from specific work on yeasts, Francis' great passion from the start of his carreer.
They influence fermentation dynamics, and thus the finesse and mouthfeel of our wines, while remaining a faithful expression of the climats of each village.
The art of blending, tamed by Francis Tribaut over 30 years, will have an echo in Burgundy, particularly in the fine regional cuvées.
Champagne in the veins & Bourgogne at heart
Francis Tribaut's family has been rooted in the village of Romery in Champagne, near Epernay, for at least 5 generations. His wife Isabelle, a native of Burgundy, shares Francis's innate sense of hospitality and good living.
Marion and Laura, their two daughters, are the link between them. They both work in Champagne, but their memories are in Burgundy, where they spend quality time with family and friends.
