alexandre Filaine
Fabrice Gass
damery
vallée de la marne - champagne
story…
Alexandre Filaine is the personal label of Fabrice Gass, who until just a few years ago was a longtime winemaker at Bollinger. Fabrice started the Filaine label as a side project while working at Bollinger, only spending his spare time on his own label and quietly growing a niche following for his meticulously crafted wines. He now dedicates his full attention to his Filaine label, doing literally all of the work himself. He produces no more than about 5,000 bottles a year from 10 separate plots that add up to just over a hectare of vines in total.
Fabrice is a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to his wines, although being located in the epicenter of Champagne surrounded by modern technological advances he chooses to produce his wines in much the way they would have been produced in Champagne over a 100 years ago. Over the years at Bollinger he was able to acquire old used barrels that they had deemed too old, but Fabrice finds these to be perfect for his wines. Some of these used barrels date back to 1937, making his fermentation vessels as old as his winemaking practices.
farming & Philosophy…
Fabrice uses only organic practices in his vineyards, however due to his parcels all being relatively small, spread out and surrounded by multiple other growers who do not farm organically his wines fall under the lutte raisonée label. Small amounts of sulfur is the only things he applies to his vineyards.
The winemaking here could easily be described as archaic or old fashioned. He has just one traditional vertical press that is used for all of his wine. The juice is pressed to old, enameled steel tanks to settle before being transferred to old barrels for native yeast fermentation. In accordance to his old fashioned methods, none of his wines go through malolactic, although he does not actively block malo, the naturally high acidity of his fruit keeps malolactic from occurring naturally. Secondary fermentation in bottle takes place under cork and Fabrice hand riddles all his wines himself, not to mention hand disgorging all the bottles as well.
Vineyards…
His miniscule collection of vineyards are planted primarily Pinot Noir with smaller percentages of Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Although his 10 plots are all separate and spread out he farms them all himself using organic practices.
