Etienne Calsac Champagne ‘Projet Comète no. 4’ Brut Nature (NV)

100% Petit Meslier.

Organic

Avize, Champagne, France

The ‘Projet Comète’ series is a newer project from Étienne where the bottling is different each year. It’s a way for Étienne to explore new wines without disrupting the labels and vineyards well-settled in his lineup, as he still has lots of new ideas. Each year the cuvée is ephemeral, tiny in quantity, and therefore as lasting as only a ‘comète.’ Comète No. 4 is entirely from the 2020 harvest, Étienne’s very first 100% Petit Meslier, drawn from the same vineyard in the Côte de Sezanne which gives birth to ‘Les Revenants’ (his vineyard called ‘Les Fours’). The wine was vinified in oak unfined/unfiltered and unsulfured, then aged under cork while on lees for roughly 36 months. Disgorged December of 2023 with no dosage, but containing 5 g/L of RS. Only one 350L barrel was produced. In this wine one feels the distinctively savory, leafy, nearly Alsatian or Italian alpine nature of Petit Meslier – Étienne notes that the variety’s relationship to Savagnin is clear to him, especially after vinifying it solo for this cuvée.

In 2010, at the age of 26, Étienne Calsac decided to take over his grandparents’ three hectares of vineyards scattered in and around Avize, which had previously been rented out to the grandes maisons, like many other small farming families throughout the region. For Calsac, stewardship of the terroir is the basis for great Champagne, so Étienne set out to ensure right away that all the vineyards are planted with grass cover crops, plowed, and transitioned to organic farming. (As of 2021, every parcel with which Étienne works is certified organic.)

Étienne himself had worked several vintages at major houses, particularly helping with press, before starting his own domaine, and he decided to maintain the same strict quality controls, in addition to a few personal touches inspired by friendship and dialogue with other young vignerons in the region. Each parcel at Calsac is vinified separately, with a percentage of wines aged in barrels. In addition to the perpetual reserve for his non-vintage cuvée ‘l’Echappée Belle,’ Calsac also keeps a separate reserve tank for the single-vineyard ‘Les Rocheforts.’

Calsac has an eye for experimentation and has released several limited cuvées over the years, including a yearly vintage Grand Cru from his grandparents’ exquisite, tiny garden vineyard in Avize called ‘Clos des Maladries’ as well as ‘Les Revenants,’ a blend of Pinot Blanc and Petit Meslier with a touch of Arbane from a vineyard that Étienne planted himself in the Côte de Sezanne. There’s another special single-vineyard these days, too, the Val d’Hermite, which is Étienne’s foray into a 100% Pinot Noir from the Aube, as unlikely a stretch as a Côtes des Blancs producer is ever likely to make into different terroir, plus the ephemeral ‘Comète’ series, a rare release each year of something new and creative.

Calsac’s quality and achievement in his winery have become very clear to us over the years at Coeur as he has refined both his farming, his winemaking, and his range of wines—each of these is a notable cuvée with clear thought behind it, from the more delicate entry-level Chardonnays to the powerful and moving single-vineyard wines. We’re very pleased to have been accompanying Étienne on his journey and are pleased to offer the small pieces of his production we receive only once or twice a year.