Champagne Adrien Renoir - Les Années - Soléra 2023
In Verzy, Grand Cru of the Montagne de Reims, Adrien Renoir works Pinot Noir with a very intimate understanding of his village. The family estate is part of an ancient winemaking history, but its current identity is based on a resolutely contemporary approach: precise maturities, barrel fermentations, low dosages, and the pursuit of a deeper expression of the terroir. Verzy gives Pinot Noir a unique personality, less massive than some neighboring crus, with a chalky tension, elegant firmness, and a remarkable ability to age. In this range, Les Années holds a special, almost meditative place, because the cuvée tells not only a place but a memory. The solera, started in 2013, allows blending several harvests into a wine that gains depth without losing its energy. This patient construction produces a reserve champagne, with texture and relief, where the Grand Cru Pinot Noir takes on a broader dimension than in a single vintage cuvée. Les Années - Soléra 2023 is thus aimed at lovers of vinous champagnes, precise and long-built, capable of combining aromatic depth and mineral tension.
This cuvée is made exclusively from Pinot Noir from the Grand Cru terroir of Verzy. The solera principle brings a rare continuity: each year enriches the previous one, creating a more complex, more polished matter where the youth of the fruit dialogues with nuances derived from time. The disgorgement of December 2023 is documented with a solera initiated in 2013, a tirage in July 2022, barrel fermentation, and an extra-brut dosage of 1.6 g/L. This very low dosage reveals the natural structure of the wine, without masking either the flesh of the Pinot Noir or the chalky freshness of the cru. Barrel fermentation brings breathability, texture, and additional aromatic depth, without steering the champagne towards a heavily oaked profile. The profile remains that of a highly precise blanc de noirs, with ample but controlled matter, integrated bubbles, and a finish carried by salinity. Les Années thus distinguishes itself from other Adrien Renoir cuvées by this sensation of temporal thickness, as if the wine layered several readings of Verzy in the same bottle.
The color presents a deep, luminous gold, with fine and already well-integrated effervescence. The nose opens on ripe pear, yellow peach, roasted apple, and some discreet red fruits, then evolves towards almond, light honey, fine brioche, soft spices, and a touch of damp chalk. On the palate, the wine shows a true presence, with broad, almost enveloping matter, immediately balanced by a chalky tension that gives momentum to the whole. The Pinot Noir brings volume, depth, and a very gastronomic vinous sensation, while the solera adds nuances of dried fruits, toasted bread, and aromatic patina. The finish remains straight, saline, slightly bitter, with persistence evoking candied citrus, fresh hazelnut, and rubbed stone. This champagne will pair remarkably with sweetbreads, farm poultry with morels, turbot with brown butter, aged Iberian ham, long-aged Comté, or even roasted pigeon served rosé. Served around 10 to 11°C in a fairly large glass, it will gain depth after a few minutes of aeration.
Grape variety: Pinot Noir
