Cogevi, the largest Champagne cooperative, brings together eight hundred families from one hundred and forty villages, located mostly in the Marne Valley. It puts half a million bottles on the market under the brand name Collet. Arvid Rosengren, World Best Sommelier 2016, paid a visit to Collet, while in the Champagne region.
Sebastien Walasiak, master cellar at Collet for the past twenty-two years, welcomed Arvid Rosengren at the historical Ay location which encompasses the “Cité du Champagne”, with its superb museum dedicated to the tools of the trade, and the Villa Collet, an art deco building dedicated to the Collet brand. As a welcome gesture the Swedish flag floated over the gates of the Collet building.
The planned festivities included the tasting of six Champagnes and two “Coteaux champenois”, the still wine appellation of the region. The first wine was an extra-brut non vintage cuvée made for 80% with grapes from the 2008 harvest. It had been vinified in stainless steel and its dosage was 3 grams. Arvid found it to be “round, soft and not too austere”. Next, the Art Deco Brut was served. It is also mostly a 2008 vintage but contains reserve wines. The grapes include 40% Chardonnay from about twenty villages ranked in “Premier Cru”. It was “fruity”, “jammier” but still “light and fresh”, Arvid said.
Sébastien then poured the Collection Privée Blanc de Blancs which is an undeclared 2006 vintage. The grapes used all originate from the Côte des Blancs area. About 60% of the must was vinified in oak barrels without malo-lactic fermentation. It is a high quality wine, and definitely one of Collet’s classiest creations, but it remains quite confidential. Only four thousand bottles were produced.
The actual Collection Privée vintage 2006 was next. It is a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir, vinified for 60% in oak, with no malo-lactic fermentation. Arvid noted its “toasted and woody flavors” but enjoyed the fact that it was still “very fresh, especially for a 2006”.
There was still one more 2006 vintage to be tasted, this time a blend of 54% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs area and 46% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims, which was vinified in stainless steel.
The Esprit Couture cuvée, the house’s prestige bottle currently out, is also a 2006, but it is not declared vintage. It is a blend of 50% Pinot Noirs from Grand Cru villages such as Mailly-en-Champagne and Louvois, with 40% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Meunier. It is quite “elegant, aerial, and very well made”, Arvid said. He also praised the effort put in the design of the bottle, which is dark and faceted. “We wanted to pay hommage to the great craftmanship that goes into any great Champagne”, Bertrand Glory, sales & marketing director at Collet, said.
The first of the two Coteaux Champenois wines was a white wine from Epernay made from 100% Pinot Meunier. It was an unfiltered 2014 vintage. “This is very unusual, Bertrand Glory said. This wine is made from vines planted in 1921. We made just two barrels of it, no more! That are six hundred bottles which we keep for our special clients as evidence of our extended know-how.” Arvid was rather pleasantly surprised. “It is full of fresh and fruity aromas, almost like the ones emanating from wines right out of a fermentation tank; but it is good and interesting” was his comment.
The other Coteaux Champenois was a single vineyard red wine made from 100% Pinot Noirs from the village of Ay. The plot is called “la porte aux brebis” [the lambs’ gate], it is located round the corner from the winery and was planted in 1974. Arvid was impressed by its “color and aromas” and found it “quite nice”.
Before departing, Arvid Rosengren was presented with a 2006 vintage magnum in its wooden box with a special inscription celebrating his 2016 World Best Sommelier title. “Collet was a pleasant surprise, he said. I had not had the chance to taste their wines lately, and I was rather impressed. The wines were good and very well-made, of high quality overall. The 2008 was excellent, the extra-brut was perfect, very balanced with nice minerality. It was really sapid whereas some extra-bruts can taste a bit hollow sometimes. The two 2006 that were presented, the one vinified in stainless steel and the one vinified in oak both displayed remarkable qualities. I almost wish they had gone for a halfway compromise between the two. And, likewise I was pleasantly surprised by the Coteau Champenois red from Ay.”
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