Etienne Sandrin and his wife Anne farm 10ha of vines in the Côte des Bar’s Celles-sur-Ource – a terroir catapulted to fame by the magical wines of Cêdric Bouchard. For decades, Etienne’s family sold to the local co-operative, but in 2014, he and Anne decided to start bottling a tiny portion of their production for family and friends.
Without a website or any easy means of being contacted, the couple take a refreshingly analogue approach in a digital world: they still send out written allocations by post and entrust only a handful of friends and close industry contacts with distribution.
Just a few thousand bottles are made each year (and only a few hundred bottles of their lieu-dit cuvées), with most of the fruit sold to local biodynamic producers, including Champagne Fleury and Clandestin.
Made from biodynamically farmed, old-vine Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc, fermented using native yeasts and without wood, these pure, focused, mineral Champagnes are rare gems.
