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Irizée – the name sounds like a promise. Shimmering, layered, luminous. Champagne Régis Poissinet from Cuchery in the Marne Valley does not treat Pinot Meunier as a stopgap but as a declaration of love. Where others treat this grape as a rustic filler, Régis Poissinet shows that Meunier can mature into some of the most elegant and long-lived Champagnes.
The family estate has worked biodynamically since 2011. 7 hectares, spread over 35 plots with vines averaging 33 years old. No herbicide, no insecticide – instead their own compost and a vineyard in which fauna and flora find their own balance. The dosage? Minimal. Between 1.7 and 3.5 grams per litre. Anyone looking for sweetness here will not find it. Anyone looking for precision, tension and pure expression of terroir is in the right place.
„limestone“
In all wines: 1,593 Wines
More about Régis Poissinet
Meunier in the leading role
In Champagne an unspoken hierarchy often applies: Chardonnay for finesse, Pinot Noir for structure, Pinot Meunier for... the rest. Régis Poissinet turns this order on its head. The Cuvée Irizée Meunier proves that this underrated grape is capable of Champagnes of exceptional depth and ageing potential. Fruity, but never clumsy. Structured, but never heavy. After years on the lees, notes of brioche, white pepper and candied citrus develop.
35 plots, a mosaic of terroirs
The 7 hectares are spread over 35 plots around the villages of Cuchery, Baslieux, Leuvrigny, Troissy and Mareuil-le-Port. Limestone clay and alluvial limestone marl shape the soils – ideal for wines with a mineral backbone. The blend Terre d'Irizée unites all three Champagne grape varieties and shows how complex a non-vintage Champagne can taste when each plot is vinified separately and only then composed.
Unlike neighbouring Tarlant in Oeuilly, Poissinet's focus lies less on historic single sites than on the overall biodynamic concept: the vines are meant to grow in balance with their surroundings, supported by home-made compost from animal and plant residues.
Biodynamics since 2011
When Régis took over the running of the estate, a quiet revolution began. First the herbicides disappeared, then all other synthetic interventions. Today bees hum between the vine rows, grasses and wildflowers form a living mulch layer, and microorganisms in the soil promote the exchange between roots and terroir. You can taste the result: the Champagnes have a vibrating energy, a cutting linearity that combines with a creamy lees note.
Extra Brut: purism in the glass
The dosage lies between 1.7 and 3.5 grams of sugar per litre – far below what most Champagne houses use. This restraint demands flawless base wines. The Cuvée Irizée Chardonnay shows what a single-variety Blanc de Blancs from the Marne is capable of: chalk, green apple, lemon zest, underpinned by an almost salty minerality. No sugar to distract. Just wine, yeast, time.
The next generation is ready: son Maxime already works in the vineyard. The Irizée story goes on – as shimmering as ever.