story…

Michel Fallon is an elusive producer to say the least and his tiny production of roughly 1,000 bottles a year at most are as hard to come by as any top grower Champagne you can imagine. Michel has spent the last 30 years as the primary assistant to the Champagne visionary Anselme Selosse. He has touched nearly every aspect of production during his time with Selosse, from working in the vineyards to the cellar. He has a better understanding of the “Selosse” method than just about anyone else, a method he applies to his own wine.

During this time he also had been working his in-laws vineyards and applying the same methods and philosophy to those vineyards as he was with Selosse and his vineyards. After several years of watching his meticulously cared for fruit be sent off to the cooperative, he was finally offered the opportunity to vinify a few rows of their vines for himself. An opportunity he clearly could not pass up, thus the Michel Fallon label was born. Taking 30+ years of knowledge and know-how working for one of the truly great minds of Champange and applying it to his own project.

Michel produces just one wine, Ozanne, the name is a nod to the historical name of Avize that was in use until 796. Over time Michel is expected to receive access to more vines, allowing him to up his production and perhaps expand his line-up if he so wishes.

farming & Philosophy…

Like his mentor, friend and boss, Anselme, the farming practices are not so much a rigorously applied method but a happy mix of techniques gathered from all facets of farming. At the heart of this method exists the permaculture ideas and teachings of Masanobu Fukoua, while pulling techniques from organic, biodynamic and other forms of natural farming to create a hand crafted approach that suits his specific vines and site.

Vinification is done exactly the way he and Anselme have been vinifying wine for decades. Native yeast fermentations in barrel, with no additives and little to no interference of any kind, and cultivated native yeasts MCR for secondary fermentations in bottle. The wines are both fermented and aged in barrel, with long periods of time spent on the lees in both barrel and bottle. Michel vinifies, ages, bottles, and disgorges his production at the Selosse estate.

*The cultivated native yeast MCR, a method in which Michel will freeze a portion of his own grape must at the beginning of the harvest and use this unfermented must to inoculate the secondary fermentation in bottle.

Vineyards…

His in-laws vineyards all lie in the Grand Cru village of Avize and are planted entirely to Chardonnay.