Champagne Deutz launches its wine library with Deutz’s Berceau Vinothèque Wines
Champagne Deutz launches its wine library
For Fabrice Rosset, the concept of the wine cellar embodies a philosophy that states: “I have long been interested in aged wine. It has always held my attention.” The president of the House of Deutz decided to take an interest in Deutz’s Berceau Vinothèque Wines. “Beyond the exceptional quality of the aged wines (well born), how can we not be concerned about the future of the work we create – work that we propose should be the subject of a thousand and one attentions for decades to come?” quotes Fabrice Rosset.
This project began 26 years ago to safeguard the small quantities of wine scattered throughout the cellars of Aÿ, whether they were at the ‘whole’, ‘on lath’ or ‘in crust’ stages, or even sometimes in ‘full’ bottles. Indeed, like many Champagne houses, the wine library had not really been a priority over the years. There were 60 bottles left in the 1960s and 890 in the 1970s. However, when Fabrice Rosset joined Champagne Deutz in 1996, he decided to keep the unreleased 1995 vintage in the cellar, set aside the 1996 vintage, and produced enough vintages to fulfil the requirements of a proper wine library policy. Maison Roederer, and he was involved with the Cristal bar.
So the two collaborators, the successive cellar masters, Odilon de Varines and Michel Davesnes, kept the bottles with a view to releasing them one day. That day has now arrived. The “Deutz’ Berceaux Vinothèque Wines” have just been launched internationally. There are 250,000 bottles, 36,000 magnums and 7,000 Jeroboams, not including the Methuselahs from the Deutz Amour collection.
In this regard, he apparently refers to two schools of thought: ageing on lees and ageing on cork, both of which have been the subject of debate in Champagne. For Deutz, both schools of thought are perfectly respectable. The policy of Champagne Oenothèque Deutz combines both: the “Tête de Cuvée” or “Cuvée de Prestige” on lees is aged for much longer than the average Champagne (at least 8 to 10 years), and is then kept, after devatting, in “Deutz Berceaux” for around 10 years, until the aromatic profile reaches the desired maturity and complexity.
The “Berceau” is home to real treasures… in every sense. In addition to the financial burden represented by decades of stock holding, the storage of tens of thousands of bottles, and the numerous operations required to produce Champagne, there are risks to be taken into account because ageing is not an exact science. The risks are manifold.
Intended for a hundred luxury venues (palaces or Michelin-starred establishments) around the world, Amour, Millésime and William – all with a combined capacity of 6,000 bottles of Champagne, produced between 1982 and 2002 – will be released this year (in quantities ranging from 100 to over 1,000 bottles). No institutional factors involved. Further additions will be made to the range in 2023 for the enjoyment of all the world’s connoisseurs.
