Renoir

The Renoir-family are located in the Grand Cru village of Verzy, in Montagne de Reims, have been Champagne growers and making wine for 4 generations. RM, all vineyards are owned by themselves. Today it is Adrien Renoir, in his mid 20’s, with his father Vincent, that is in charge of the domaine. With Adrien at the the rudder the estate has taken the turn towards a Terroir-focused philosophy and changed its methods thereafter, whilst respecting the from his family inherited knowledge and experience. The cuvées that existed when Adrien took over carry the name Vincent, whilst the wines introduced by Adrien is labelled under his own name.

The 6 hectares of vines are under Adrien’s lead treated organically, soon to be certified. Biodynamic practices are also used. The average age of the vines are around 40 years. Soils are worked more nowadays, tilling and ploughing, and grass/herbs/flowers are left to grow in between the rows. All vineyards are located around Verzy hence all wines are made of Grand Cru fruit. The vineyards are based on limestone soils.

Manual work is the melody, including harvest, after pressing with whole bunches fermentation takes place with indigenous yeast. Mainly in steel, but Adrien has introduced some more oak. Especially for famous lieux-dits such as Les Epinettes, Les Montants and Les Vignes Goisses. There are also some cement eggs in the cellar nowadays. Some of these parcels are since Adrien took over the reins being bottled individually, yet again, focusing on terroir and the specific vineyard. All wines see extensive sur lattes ageing, several years, minimum 4-5 years. Yet another alteration Adrien has done is to lower the dosage on all wines. Resulting in a more transparent and honest expression of the wines. 6 g/l is the highest we have seen, yet more common around 3.

These are wines that stylistically are aiming for finesse, freshness and balance with linear character. Steely and serious. In Montagne de Reims Pinot Noir takes the forefront adding a darker, brooding, spicy note but Chardonnay at Renoir plays an important role. This is just the beginning of an era, yet so much has already happened with Adriens overtaking — we are immensely excited to follow his journey.