Champagne Christian Briard
“I want to produce not only Champagnes but Champagne Wines!”
Currently the property extends over half a hectare and produces about 5,000 bottles a year. The property benefits from the supply of grapes from the Marne Valley, bringing annual production to around 10,000 bottles a year.This production is divided into 6 different vintages, some vintage: (Louis Briard, and the Ambre series) and others not Maurice Romelot (Brut and Extra brut). Maurice Romelot Maurice Brut comes in bottles and magnums, Louis Briard in a few bigger bottles like Jerobohame, Methuselah and Nebuchadnezzar.
The Maison Christian Briard also produces a Coteaux Champenois (2009 and 2015 vintages) and a Ratafia (2008 and 2009) (nd: grape must with the Eau-de-vie).
Let’s go together to meet Christian Briard, winemaker and owner of the eponymous house.
Why did you choose to become a winemaker?
Christian Briard: I have not always been a winemaker. My maternal grandfather was a winemaker but my father did not follow him. At that time the job was not very valued. I grew up and lived here in champagne, then moved to Paris and Belgium for years for professional reasons, while keeping my birth house. I have long been an expert in microelectronics, specialist in embedded smart cards. Around the year 2005, at around forty, I expressed the need to change my life, to return to something more true, more real, more human. I then had the opportunity to take back the vines of my grandfather which were at the time rented. Fortunately the lease was expiring so I took them back. I then had a period during which I honored my last contracts, missions of consultation for Mastercard while preparing me for the trade of the vines and the wine. Once prepared, I returned permanently to Champagne to take over the vines of my grandfather, then on a second time, to create a trading company. Today I produce Champagnes with the vines located in the western part of the Marne Valley. For me Champagne is a wine of blends, that’s how I like it. So I do not produce ‘parcellaire champagne’ but I blend quality terroirs and especially I give time for my wines to age. The Pinot Meunier gives you so much when you give it time! The first bottle labeled with the name of my house was in December 2010.
What is the signature of Maison Christian Briard? What makes it possible to recognize them by blind tasting?
C.B.: I would say that the signature of the Pinot Meunier is its most generous expression. For me what is important is to have fruit, I try to always make extremely fruity wines. For me Champagne is above all a Champagne wine and not just a champagne. I want to make gourmet Champagne wines, which we open and serve at table and with which we can eat. I am looking for finesse, delicacy and aromatics. They must have structure while remaining easily associated with dishes.
If you had to define what Champagne means to you in three or four words, what would you say?
C.B.: It’s beautiful, it’s good, it’s French elegance and it’s a true product.
Do you have any special projects for Champagnes Christian Briard?
C.B.: Yes we are developing relationships with the restaurants, markets that we had not yet discussed, especially in Reims and Paris and major European capitals. I target particularly beautiful French tables and also Asian because there are many good food and champagne pairings possible. I would have liked to buy other parcels of vines as well but nowadays it is takes on average 84 years to make a profit (according to a study) after acquiring a hectare of vineyard in Champagne. It’s huge, impossible, unreasonable and without any economic profitability possible. It’s like going into debt for at least three generations…
Do you have an anecdote about your house?
C.B.: I have a Champagne named after my grandfather, Maurice Romelot. It was even the first vintage when I released. It was important to pay tribute to my grandfather who was the creator of this vineyard.
I also recently created, not a vintage but a different brand in the name of my young son, Louis Briard. This is my child’s name but it is also a nod to the story. Indeed after long genealogical research I discovered that one of the first winemakers of the family was a man called Louis who made wine in the seventeenth century in the Meuse. He was at the time a winemaker, son of a vintage distiller, schoolmaster and secretary of the town hall in the Meuse. What courage, what an example!