Collard-Picard-Reuil

This new husband-and-wife Champagne house is the product of two venerable Champagne families. Olivier Collard is the grandson of the great René Collard in the village of Reuil (12k-Epernay), one of the most respected and venerable recoltant-manipulants in all of Champagne. His wife, Delphine Picard, is the cousin of Chantal Gonet of Champagne Phillipe Gonet in Mesnil. Their heritage gives them access to some of the best fruit in the entire Champagne region. Olivier’s vineyards are in the western valley of the Marne, where Pinot Meunier is king, and there is no family with more mastery of this native-to-Champagne plant than the Collards. Delphine’s vineyards are in the hallowed, pure chalk soils of Mesnil-sur-Oger, the most famous of all the Grand Crus for Chardonnay. No Malolatic fermentation