Collery’s new release balances Champagne tradition and savoury style
With the release of EmpyreumatiC 2015, Champagne Collery shows its stylistic hallmarks – as well as the virtues of adaptability and patience.
“A good friend, a cosy armchair: Friday night at 9pm. You sit and talk quietly about anything, with no lights, sipping from big glasses of Champagne.” It is not the usual prestige pitch for a vintage Champagne. Yet Romain Levecque has built his reputation at Champagne Collery on methodical winemaking, rather than flashy PR. He aims to make his point in the glass.
Nowhere is that more evident than in EmpyreumatiC, the house’s vintage cuvée which releases its 2015 expression this autumn. Although Champagne Collery does not have a hierarchy – releases are determined by character rather than an engineered price point – EmpyreumatiC leans most into the savoury, whisky-inspired profile that Levecque loves. Indeed, its name references the flavour family of cooked, toasted aromas often seen in whisky: the likes of smoke, toast and caramel.
The winemakers carefully introduce such a character. They prioritise Pinot Noir, the hallmark of Champagne Collery. Its riper, richer aromas offer the structure to support complex, savoury flavours. Such aromas are layered in by the use of American oak – a mix of smaller barriques and large casks – to complement the fruit profile. Subtlety is all, however, says Levecque: “We use them very lightly to bring the concept to life, but we need to stay Champagne.”
Over the years since he blended EmpyreumatiC’s inaugural 2014 vintage, Levecque has refined his approach to its winemaking. Each vintage, it is made afresh: there is no set formula in the base wines that he selects for the vintage cuvée. Even so, patterns have emerged.
All of Collery’s wine goes through the same initial process, treated identically until it is evident which cuvée it is made for, at which point a process akin to seasoning separates them. There is, however, a vat that almost invariably develops the EmpyreumatiC quality – that is usually the blend’s starting-point. Levecque also knows what to avoid: for instance, the cru of Bouzy is one of Champagne’s most esteemed for Pinot Noir, but simply too heavy for the cuvée.
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Through the years
EmpyreumatiC has been a remarkable success for Champagne Collery. Since its conception in 2014, the maison has only skipped the 2017 vintage. That challenging harvest was saved by Chardonnay, but that variety is not at the heart of Champagne Collery’s DNA.
The 2015 vintage was a challenging one for two reasons. Firstly, it was only the second year of EmpyreumatiC, and so, Levecque says, it was essential to make for the “consistency of the concept”.
Secondly, it was a solar vintage in Champagne. That can be a blessing for Pinot Noir, complementing its fleshier qualities. Yet, for an already rich cuvée, it risked throwing the wine out of balance. So Levecque adapted the maison’s Pinot Noir-first ethos, creating a 50:50 blend with Chardonnay and using stainless steel alongside American oak.
The result, he believes, has balanced, zesty acidity and fruit character, with the power of Pinot Noir and savoury depths. Much like the whiskies Levecque so loves, EmpyreumatiC 2015 is proving the virtue of patience. “For many, the vintage is gone or almost gone, simply because it was an early release due to the heaviness of the vintage,” he comments. “But here, we still have so much crunch, elegance and freshness in it.”
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