COLLECTION D'AUTEUR 2012 GRAND CRU (Champagne André ROBERT)

DESCRIPTION

COLLECTION D'AUTEUR is a vintage Blanc de Blancs champagne (100% Chardonnay) the ageing period on slats is the longest of all.

TERROIR

The plots are located on the Le Mesnil Sur Oger's terroir, whose soils consist of the famous Champagne chalk which covers a good part of the Côte des Blancs soils. This very pure chalk is the result of the skeletton sedimentation, in warm and shallow water, of the microorganisms and algae which populated the seas covering the region during the Campanian period (-75 million years ago, upper Cretaceous stage).

The chalk sometimes outcrops on the plot's surface in places, sometimes disappears under a thick layer of yellowish limestone silt dating from the Quaternary, there are -2 million years ago, and which comes from the underlying chalk deterioration.

WINEGROWING & WINEMAKING

COLLECTION D'AUTEUR is a 2012 vintage Blanc de Blancs champagne.

The 2012 harvest's grapes are, after picking, slowly and gently pressed. Only the must from the first three presses is kept, this is called the cuvée.

The must makes its alcoholic fermentation in 225-liters oak barrels with the indigenous yeasts action, if the latter are sufficiently efficient. In case of slowness, neutral active dry yeasts can be added to ensure a complete alcoholic fermentation. The must is then filtered in order to inhibit the malolactic fermentation's onset. A slight dose of sulphits are added in order to stabilize the must before it continues to mature for 10 months on its fine lees and in 225-liter oak barrels.

When the lees ageing is over, the must is drawn off and bottled with a liqueur de tirage for the second fermentation in bottle.
It will rest on slats for 78 months. After disgorging, the champagne is dosed at 3 g/l with a homemade liqueur, then it rests in the cellar for a few extra-months before marketing.

• Vintage: 2012
  
• Disgorgement date: 2020/03
  
• Sugar addition: 3 g/l
• Dosage Liquor: Homemade