Stéphane coquillette
Stéphane Coquillette
Chouilly
côte des blancs - champagne
story…
Stéphane Coquillette represents the fourth generation of his family to grow and produce wine in the Champagne region. His grandmother was in fact the first to bottle Champagne in the Chouilly village, with her wines being showcased at a fair in Paris in 1928 under the Pierre Coquillette label. His grandmother also created the Saint-Chamant label, which until recently was run by Stéphane’s father, Christian, who unfortunately passed away in early 2020. Stéphane now oversees both his label and the family brand.
Wanting to create wines that were entirely his own and different from his father’s led Stéphane to create his own label in 1979 at the young age of 25. At the time Stéphane did not own any vines, but has since amassed around 6.5 hectares of vines spread across the villages of Chouilly, Cuis, Aÿ & Mareuil. After years of producing his wines at other facilities, in 2000 Stéphane purchased an old cooperative building in Chouilly which had some great cellars but no formal winemaking area. So in 2001 he had a cuvérie constructed which now houses four separate presses. All of his wines are now produced and aged in his own facilities.
farming & Philosophy…
All of the vineyards are farmed with organic practices, although Stéphane does not hold any certifications. All of the vineyard work is done by hand, including harvest, trellising and pruning. He employs cover crops in the majority of his sites, but also plows portions which are then covered in bark to help prevent erosion and weed growth. Chemical herbicides are avoided at all costs and only organically certified fertilizers are applied to the vineyards.
Winemaking here is fairly straightforward, all fermentations take place in stainless tanks and all wines go through malolactic fermentation. The majority of the fermented wine is aged in stainless steel, however since 2009 Stéphane has started to implement the use of secondhand barrels to age a portion of his wines in as well. He sources his used barrels from a grower in Meursault. In general Stéphane does not use reserve wine in any of his wines, although most are not labeled as vintage bottlings. The wines are all aged in bottle under crown cap for secondary fermentation before being disgorged and closed with cork, they are stored on cork for a short time before release. Stéphane’s dosage levels typically fall around 5 g/l for all of his cuvées.
Vineyards…
Stéphane’s holdings are made up of 10 separate parcels spread over four villages and amount to 6.5 hectares of vines in total. In the Côte des Blancs he has parcels of Chardonnay in both Chouilly, where his estate is located and in neighboring Cuis. He has Pinot Noir holdings in both Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ north of the estate in the Grande Vallée.
