2002 Corbon Brut Blanc de Blancs, Avize Grand Cru

The history of Champagne Corbon dates back to the 1920s, when Agnès’ great-grandfather, Charles Corbon, moved to Avize and acquired his first vines. His son, Albert, had little interest in viticulture, so the company fell quiet for much of the 1900s. It wasn’t until the 1970s, when Agnès’ father Claude took the helm, that Champagne Corbon transformed into a producer of its own right. In 1972, fed up with buyers asking if they could pay for grapes a year late, Claude realised that he could “just bottle it and sell it himself by June”, in Agnès’ words.

In just three decades, Claude led this single champagne estate to be one of the most respected growers in the region. Nowadays, daughter Agnès holds the reins, although Claude still works for the company. After graduating in 1999, Agnès moved to the UK, working in Sheffield and Crawley for a number of years. Finally realising that her life was in Champagne, she returned to France, completed a course in oenology and began working for Champagne Corbon in 2006.

The family currently own 6 hectares of land, 2ha of which are in their hometown of Avize. The rest of their vines are in the Vallée de la Marne, in Trélou-sur-Marne, Vandières, Verneuil and Vincelles. Half of their grapes are still sold to the négociants, the other half are used to produce around 10k bottles of Champagne Corbon annually. They harvest all three grape varieties, however given their location in Avize, Chardonnay is unsurprisingly their dominant grape, accounting for 60% of their production.