corbon
Agnès Corbon
Avize
côte des blancs - champagne
story…
Third generation winegrower Claude Corbon began bottling his family wines under his own label in 1971, shortly after taking over the estate. The wines of Corbon have and continue to fly under the radar of most drinkers and connoisseurs, they are a tiny estate that haven’t changed much since the beginning. Claude did all fermentations in stainless or lined cement, the wine spent extended amounts of time on the lees in bottle under crown, and have never been fined or filtered.
In 2006 Claude retired and handed the reins over to his daughter, Agnès, who had been working alongside her father for a while prior to taking control. Claude remains a part of the family winery, however Agnès is the driving force behind all decisions in their vineyards & cellar. Generally speaking Agnès has continued with the majority of the practices that her father implemented, however she is constantly experimenting with different techniques and theories to continue to improve the quality of her wines.
farming & Philosophy…
The Corbons farm around 6 hectares of vines most of which lie in the Vallée de la Marne, but two hectares are in Avize. The farming is now done without the use of pesticides and herbicides, a decision that Agnès has implemented. She is hesitant to fully commit to organics, but nonetheless her farming is done almost exclusively with organic practices.
Everything done in the vineyards and the cellar is rooted in traditional methods that have been passed down from generation to generation. Any changes are implemented over long periods of time before being made standard practice. The most recent adjustment in the cellar includes lees stirring in various proportions and aging her wines in bottle under cork as opposed to crown caps.
Corbon was also an early adopter of the Mytik Diam cork, stating that even when they bought the highest quality natural cork there was only a 96% guarantee, which Agnès deemed not good enough. Mytik corks have been used at the domaine since 2006.
Vineyards…
Corbon’s vineyards mostly lie in the Vallée de la Marne, spread out between the villages of Vandières, Verneuil, Vincelles and Trélou-sur-Marne, but a third of their vineyards are in Avize. They sell a fairly significant portion of their grapes off to the local négoce, and only produce about 10-15,000 bottles total a year. Their own bottlings are almost exclusively produced from their Chardonnay in Avize. Only a small portion of what they produce under their own label has Pinot Noir included in the blend, most notably their solera style wine under the fantasy name: d’Autrefois.
