Champagne Stroebel Côteaux Champenois Blanc Le Vin tranquille 2020

Timothée’s family came from Alsace, and settled in Champagne after the Second World War. Vineyards were planted in the early 60’s in Villers Allerand, a small 1er cru village tucked in Montagne de Reims, where they still farm today. Two generations later, Timothée had the dream to produce his own Champagne from the plots planted by his grandfather. After studying wine and working in Burgundy, Timothée slowly got back the plots that were divided between the family members. Installation was done in steps: 2001 the vineyards; 2005 the first wines were produced.

The domain encompasses the three known Champagne varieties: Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Tim picks at relatively high levels of maturity for the region, and has a Pinot Meunier vineyard plot from which he only makes a Coteaux Champenois Rouge every year “Le Montreval”. When the vintage allows, Timothée will try to make more wine than Champagne, as he often says that ‘La Bulle est accessoire”. If he makes Champagne he needs to feel something, hence, he is not going to produce the same wine twice. From the vintage 2018, all the wines are barrel aged, and he is working towards bigger size barrels starting from 400L. The alcoholic and malolactic fermentation happens naturally, wines are not cold stabilised and there is no dosage nor filtration.

In 2018, an exceptional year for both quality and quantity, Timothée has made the decision to produce 5 Coteaux Champenois showing that he really believes in the potential of his grapes. He has made three different still wines (White, Rose, Red), from the Meunier grapes, in order to express the potential of this too often undervalued variety.