Champagne Ulysse Collin
Visiting the Champagne
region, part 5: a conversation and tasting with Olivier Collin
This was a brilliant visit with the dramatic, expressive Olivier
Collin (above) of Ulysse Collin. He's based in Congy, which is in
the Coteaux du Sezanne, a little to the southwest of the
Côte des
Blancs. His family's vines had been rented out to a large Champagne
house, and he got them back in 2003. Since 2004 he has been making
interesting terroir-driven wines of real intensity and depth.
Olivier Collin's family had been farming vineyards since 1812, but
were renting out their 8.7 hectares of vineyards to a negociant. But
Olivier wanted these vineyards back: he felt he could do something
special with them. So he began studying law (useful for getting the
vineyards back) and winemaking. Olivier studied law for eight years
before turning to winegrowing, and he completed a three-month
internship with Anselme Selosse in 2001 before setting out on his
own. As with Anselme, everything at Ulysse Collin goes through
barrel. We looked at the 2015 wines from barrel, and then at some of
the reserve wines. The approach here is one of working with discrete
parcels and then seeking to express these terroirs.
In
2003 Olivier got back the first 4.5 hectares, but because of the
difficult season he had to sell all the grapes. In 2004, healthy
yields meant he could finally start making his own wines. Inspired
by Selosse, all his fermentations were in oak (they still are; since
2001 he has some foudres as well as the smaller barrels to play
with). In 2005 he got back the remaining 4.2 hectares.
'In
the beginning it was difficult,' says Olivier. 'I was quite alone in
this region to make these kinds of wines.'
The
vineyards weren't in great shape when he began farming them, and so
he has been concentrating on working on soil health. But he isn't
organic, because he doesn't like using copper. The mildew pressure
is high in Champagne, and if you use copper, he maintains, then you
damage the soil microbes. He also thinks that copper thickens the
skins of the grapes, and can lead to some bitterness in the wines.
Olivier tried working with organics in Les Enfers and Les Roises,
and lost 100 and 70% of the crop in each during the 2012 growing
season. So he's abandoned that project. The most important thing is
to plough, he says. After that, the protection of the leaves is your
choice. He says that he now prefers to work the culture of the vines
with his brain and the winemaking with his sensitivity. He works his
way through the barrels from the current vintage and decides at the
last moment what he will keep and what he will bottle.
Between 20 and 40% of the wines each year are kept back as reserves.
The barrel ageing of the base wines has crept up from 10 months in
2004 to 13 months in 2006.
Olivier makes five wines from four sites. He makes the wines with
ageing in mind, and suggests that his wines have the potential to
develop for a decade, although with such a short track record he
says he can't be sure. They have so much personality: I really like
them. They all have low dosage, with a maximum of 2.4 g/litre.
Les
Pierrières
Blanc de Blancs is powerful, precise and detailed with lovely
acidity. Les Maillons is a Pinot Noir with a remarkable fruity
personality, bursting with lemons, cherries and rose aromas. Les
Enfers is a Blanc de Blancs with an amazing complexity, and was my
pick of a very fine bunch. Les Roises Blanc de Blancs is also
fabulous with intense toast, almond, honey and citrus notes. The
outlier is the distinctive sappy Rosé de Saignée Les Maillons, with
its intense fruitiness and fairly deep colour. This is a Champagne
grower to watch.
'The most important thing for me is the signature of the site of a
place,' says Olivier. 'Vintage could be interesting to me, but it is
not the most important.' Production is around 45 000 bottles
annually, and just single-vineyard cuvées are made. 'I'm very happy
because the wines are completely different and they all have their
own personality.'
The
dosage for all these wines is low, ranging from 1.7-2.4 g/litre.
Champagne Ulysse Collin Les Enfers Blanc de Blancs NV France
This is based on the 2010 vintage with 48 months on lees
and was bottled in 2011. Disgorged in 2015. Wonderfully appley and
aromatic on the nose with some lemony notes. Powerful, nutty and
lemony on the palate with almonds and fine toasty notes, as well as
ripe apples. Complex and very fresh with stone fruits and pear,
coupled with good acidity. Profound wine. 96/100 (04/16)
Champagne Ulysse Collin Les Pierrières Blanc de Blancs
NV France This is based on the 2012 vintage and was
disgorged in February 2016. 12.5% alcohol. Concentrated and intense
with fine, expressive citrus fruits and a touch of herbiness, as
well as some apple and pear richness. Focused, with nice bright
lemony notes. Very fine and expressive, showing real intensity.
Pristine and fine with lovely acidity. 95/100 (04/16)
This cuvee is a Pinot Noir from a 6 hectare lieu dit called
Maillons, which has heavy clay soils over chalk. Olivier owns 2.5
hectares here, and his vines average 40 years old. It's a truly
amazing wine, with lots of personality.
Champagne Ulysse Collin Blanc de Noirs Les Maillons Extra
Brut NV France This is 2012 base, disgorged February
2016. Full yellow colour with a hint of pink. Rounded with lively
appley cherry fruit on the nose. Very pure and quite floral with
lovely aromas. Extremely fruity palate with cherries, roses and
herbs, as well as keen acidity. Fruity and exotic with nice lemony
notes. So linear, yet with amazing fruit. 93/100 (04/16)
Champagne Ulysse Collin Blanc de Noirs Les Maillons Extra
Brut NV France This was disgorged in March 2012, and it's
based on the 2008 vintage. A full colour, it has a rich nose of
nuts, marzipan, ripe apples and toast. The palate is powerful and
spice with concentrated citrus fruit and rich toast, wax and
marzipan characters. Dense, complex and lovely. 94/100 (08/15)
Champagne Ulysse Les Roises Blanc de Blanc Extra Brut NV
France This is a 0.6 ha plot that makes around 3500
bottles a year. It's 75% 2011 and 25% 2012. Wonderfully expressive
nose of toast, almonds, pears and some apricot. The palate is
complex, broad, nutty and intense, with rich, powerful nut, honey
and peach fruit. There's some warmth here and some depth, but also
freshness and precision. Alluring and profound. 95/100 (04/16)
Champagne Ulysse Collin Rosé de Saignée Les
Maillons Extra Brut NV France This is a full pink colour
and comes in a frosted glass bottle. Fine, fresh, sweet red cherry
nose with some almond and jelly notes. Subtle cherry fruit palate
with distinctive sappy greenness. Very fruity and a bit herby with
nice red fruits character. Expressive and distinctive with some
raspberry and tea leaf notes. 93/100
(04/16)
VISITING CHAMPAGNE
Part
1, JL Vergnon
Part
2, Bruno Paillard
Part
3, Anselme Selosse
Part
4, Pierre Péters
Part
5, Ulysse Collin
Part
6, Gosset
Part
7, De Sousa
Wines
tasted as indicated
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