Champagne Terroir


• By Allen Dale "Ole" Olson   |   Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 3:57 pm   |     |   Print   |   Permalink

The late Al Ricciutti was a man before his time. Born in Baltimore of a French mother married to a World War I American soldier, Al grew up speaking French and served in World War II as a translator for Patton’s Army as it moved across France. Along the way he met Paulette Revolte in her home in Avenay-val-d’Or near Epernay. Sixteen years after WWII he returned to Avenay and married Paulette whose family promptly made him overseer of their vineyards.

Like many grape-growing families in the Champagne region, the Revoltes had been selling their grapes to the big name producers. Al continued that practice but as he became better informed about Champagne production, he began making it in the Revolte homestead. “Making Champagne is easier than selling Champagne,” he used to tell me, but little by little he found markets for his 20,000 bottles annually, including the U.S. Embassy in Paris. By the late 1970s, he was established as a bona fide Champagne producer.

He labeled his Champagne Domaine Ricciutti-Revolte and illustrated the label with crossed American and French flags. As his son, Jean-Charles (named for John Kennedy and Charles De Gaulle) grew into adulthood, Al had the help he needed to assure the domaine’s success. While he never made enough wine to make exporting practical, he was able to supply a couple of Baltimore collectors from time-to-time and was satisfied that he had convinced a number of regional restaurateurs and retailers that his grapes were unique. “Why not,” he would say.” “Moet & Chandon bought my grapes and they have vines right next to mine, so I know our quality is of high standard.”

Very little of Al’s operation was mechanized, and he ran a one-man bottler himself, so that each bottle was individually crafted, meaning, of course, a degree of inconsistency but at the same time a  good chance that some of that individually crafted wine would have exceptional qualities.

Al died at he turn of this last century only somewhat aware that a number of young producers in the area were imprinting their unique styles on the Champagnes they were producing. Like their colleagues in Chablis and the rest of Burgundy, the new breed was exploiting the terroir of their holdings, and it’s possible today to travel the region and find superb Champagnes in some of the most unlikely premises.

Alain Couvreur, for example, comes to mind. The Couvreurs are in Jonqueray, just west of Rheims, and till very recently their sales room was little more than a shed presided over by Alain’s mother who with jolly good humor defied you to find her son’s wines less good than those “grand marques” in the city.

But don’t take my word for it. The November issue of DEPARTURES, American Express’s very upscale magazine, has just discovered the fact of individal production in the world’s most exclusive wine region. Too bad Al died before DEPARTURES got there.

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