Based in Sermiers in the Montagne de Reims, he works just 2 hectares spread across 15 different cru plots. Tiny, tiny yields. Bonkers, financially speaking but that’s the thing: he’s not chasing volume. He’s chasing pure expression. Biodiversity is the name of the game, taken to levels that even the more forward-thinking growers might call... unhinged. Especially in such a storied region, where land is both precious and expensive.

His views on farming are truly one of a kind. His focus on vineyards as living entities has led to a point where wild trees have started populating among the vines, not planted, but self-seeded. The land is essentially slowly reclaiming itself from monoculture. How cool? Agroforestry isn’t a wholly new concept in the wine world, but seeing it embraced this early, in this region, is pretty radical. Trees offer shade to whole vine rows; in some cases, the vines are actually growing into the trees. After a trip to Morocco with his assistant Aissam where he saw olive, almond, fig and grape all growing old together he took the plunge in his own vineyards. He hasn’t looked back since and this shared environment is the main factor in such small but concentrated yields. This is Biodynamic + + +.

In 2015, Émilien started making his own wines. Before that, his fruit was sold off to respected growers like Aurélien Laherte. After ten years of honing his farming, it was time to taste the fruits of his labour in his own bottles. With help from a few friendly neighbours (the 2000 kg press from Aurélien Lurquin, and the ‘bigger’ 4000 kg one from Thomas Perseval), he made his first vintage. Pressing has always been crucial to his work almost as much as the farming itself. This 2020 release is the first using his own press. It’s a gravity-fed setup that allows the must to flow gently through the cake of grapes, with deliberate oxygen contact, something he believes is key to the wine’s stability and character.


Everything is vinified by plot. No dosage across the range, just how we like it, of course.