Champagne Hubert Soreau

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Hubert Soreau was not born in Champagne. Like other outsiders who have made their way into traditional European wine regions, such as Tony Bodenstein at Prager, Michi Moosbrugger at Schloss Gobelsburg, or Ted Lemon at Dujac, he brings a different point of view. And he is making waves.

He works with a single vintage, single parcel, single barrel approach currently utilized by a handful of growers in the region, but he also brings to his work a perspective unencumbered by traditions and conventions.

Hubert farms without pesticides or herbicides and picks late in the season. Fermentation takes place in both used barriques and neutral 300-liter Hautvillers oak barrels and is finished with minimal dosage at bottling.

Le Clos l’Abbé is a single parcel outside of Épernay where the Vallée de la Marne and the Côte des Blancs meet. This site was originally planted in the 9th century by order of the Bishop of Reims. At that time, it was called Mons Ebbonis. From the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, it was known as Mont de Bon and was mostly planted to red grapes. The Counts of Épernay then purchased the parcel in the 17th century from the Bishop of Reims, built an Abbey on the site, and it has been used for Champagne production ever since.

Hubert was born in the far north of France, in the town of Maubeuge, on the border of Belgium. His family moved to Champagne, in a house across from Le Clos l’Abbé, where the site essentially served as his back yard. His parents purchased a small parcel in 1993, and Hubert added to that original holding with another purchase in 2003.