Based in the village of Congy, Olivier Collin comes from a family of vinegrowers who have been active in the Coteaux du Petit Morin since 1812. Georges Collin was the first Récoltant Manipulant in Congy; he started in 1930 and received awards from the French Ministry of Agriculture. Following the second world war, René Collin (Olivier’s grandfather) grew the estate to 18 hectares of vines, began producing his own Champagne blends and was an esteemed member of the “Club des Viticulteurs Champenois” until the 1980’s (it now goes by “Club Trésors de Champagne”). In 1987, Olivier’s father sold the company and began renting the entirety of the family’s vines and cellar to a big Champagne house, effectively ending independent production.
In his youth, reclaiming the family land was not Olivier’s focus; the interest came following a trip to Burgundy in his early days of university. It was a truly introspective experience and he instantly fell in love with the wines of the region. Stunned by the singularity of the various climates and the particularities of the wines tasted in the Côte de Beaune, this sparked the desire to not only reclaim his family land back but, as we will discuss later, greatly influence Olivier’s work philosophy. He began law school in 1995 with the secret intention of using his acquired knowledge to accomplish the challenging task of reclaiming 8.7 hectares back from a big négociant. Almost a decade later, when it looked like it was actually going to happen, Olivier did a six month formation in viticulture (all the while continuing his studies in law) followed by a six week stage at an estate in Champagne.
In 2003, Olivier successfully recovered 4.5 hectares that had been rented out for a generation. Starting from scratch, his first purchase was a second-hand tractor so he could work soils that had not been plowed in 18 years. His second investment consisted of used barrels (at least four years old) because he felt the vin clair had to be made in oak. The 2004 vintage was Olivier’s first release of 5,400 bottles exclusively from the Coteaux du Petit Morin vineyard.
If you don’t know the Coteaux du Petit Morin, Olivier hopes to change that. The region, still in the Marne but south of the Grand Crus in the Côte des Blancs, is little known but of great geological distinction and history. To promote his native terroirs, for three years Olivier acted as president of the region as well as vice-president of the Coteaux du Sézannais in order to build, defend and promote the historical, cultural and geographic identity of both these underappreciated regions.
Despite Champagne’s historical notoriety for multi-parcel, multi-vintage blends, Olivier’s fascination with Burgundy led him to wonder if the model of expressing unique sites and climats could translate to his native terroirs. From the beginning, his vision was thus to only release single vineyard expressions of his land. While this idea has gained traction in Champagne over the years, it was all but unheard of at the time and still remains relatively rare. In this sense Olivier is a true pioneer. And to this day, Ulysse Collin is the only estate in Champagne to release 100% of its wines as single vineyards expressions.
The cellar work has evolved greatly over the years. From 2004 to 2011, only Burgundian barrels were used and the wines were released as single vintages with small additions of reserve wine. During this time, the elevages in barrel progressively got longer: 10 months in 2004, 12 in 2005, 13 in 2006… By 2012, Olivier began intentionally holding back large amounts of each vintage back, culminating in a current 18 foudres of reserve wine, the equivalent of a full harvest in a plentiful vintage. These vary in size depending on the parcel they store (10, 12, 20 and 30 hectoliters).
These reserve wines are not solera but rather vins clairs from the previous two vintages. Depending on the current year’s crop, Olivier will blend as much or as little of the three vintages to find the most complex expression possible.
“It’s a great liberty to be able to work this way, to let a vintage evolve and use it at the right time or to use it when I need it. The expression of a vintage is always interesting, but you are trapped with the good and the bad of that year. I want to make the best possible expression of my vineyards at any given time, and to me that means going beyond vintage.”
Going against the trend of releasing earlier and earlier, Olivier has followed a path of long aging to enhance the quality of his wines’ aromatic complexity. He is a firm believer that dosage is important to the final balance of a Champagne and essential for it to age gracefully over an extended period of time. Dosage has varied over the years, but has always been low. Through experimentation, Olivier has become a fan of 1.7G or 2.4 G dosage and is likely the only Champagne producer to use these specific measurements.
- Champagne Les Pierrières 3yr Extra Brut
- Champagne Les Pierrières 4yr Extra Brut
- Champagne Les Maillons Extra Brut
- Champagne Rosé de Saignée Les Maillons Extra Brut