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Etienne Calsac & Flavian Nowack Champagnes

Etienne Calsac & Flavian Nowack Champagnes

 

No gonna be shy about it, but we get the sickest champagnes through the door here all year long.  From Vilmart to Brochet, Pierre Peters to Ulysse Collin, Agrapart to Vouette.  But recently, Flaviar Nowack and Etienne Calsac are the two new kids on the block that are getting our chalky, mineral, champagne blood flowing.  Our pathetically small allocations have just arrived.

Nowack is a tiny little Champagne house in the Vallee de la Marne--they've been farming in champagne for generations.  Not long ago, son Flavien took the helm, and under the tutelage of his mentor Emmanual Brochet, has been crafting some of the most amazing, under the radar Champagnes that we have seen.  With a focus on turning his family's estate into biodynamic viticulture, he has succeeded, while capturing he terroir of his vines like no other.  There is no chaptalization, no malolactic fermentation, natural yeast selection and only his own unfermented grape juice for secondary fermentation in bottle. This process allows for a softer, more delicate, lower carbonation Champagne, allowing more of the vinous quality to shine through-which is right up our alley. His vines are planted to 65% Pinot Meunier, 25% Chardonnay, and 10% Pinot Noir and he bottles these as single plot and single vintage bottlings. We recently opened one and it was jaw droppingly delicious.  We are excited to have 6 different champagnes from 5 different plots in from him spanning 3 vintages all the way back to his rarest extended lees aged Tuilerie 2013!!

Etienne Calsac is another one that makes our hearts skip a beat.  At only around 30 years old, this kid from Champagne took over his family's tiny 2 hectares of vines in the amazing village of Avize in the Cotes des Blancs. Every once in a while see a little drop of Calsac come our way, and this time we have received his most rare-- the Clos du Maladries grand Cru, a 1000 bottle production Champagne named after the tiny .16 hectare clos itself located in Avize, planted with Chardonnay on nothing but straight chalk by his grandfather in the 1970s.  Calsac's wines are beautiful, with energy and tension and texture harnessed from these grand cru chalky soils.  

This year, we got a nice allocation of Calsac's Workhorse Champagene, the L’Échappée Belle’ Brut, and we have put an insane case price on it where it is over 20% off.

All wines have been discounted heavily off of their regular prices.

Please see below for further info on each wine.

Some wines are all in house now, the rest arrive this week.

NOWACK WINES
Nowack S.A. Saint Anne Champagne Extra Brut NV 750ml 
36 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $74.99!
Organic. 60 % Pinot Meunier, 40%. ‘S.A.’ stands for ‘Sans Année,’ or non-vintage. Base 2022, with 10% reserve wines blended in (vintages 2012 to 2021). The vineyards are selected to be a reflection of Flavien’s home village; they form an arc around the single vineyards. Vinification is with both spontaneous yeasts as well as selected strains from the estate; all aging is done in oak barrels and vats. No dosage, disgorged December ‘24.

Flavien Nowack Champagne 'Autre Cru' Blanc de Meunier Brut Nature NV 750ml
7 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $86.99!
Organic. 100% Meunier. Base vintage 2022, with 40% reserve from 2021. In 2022, the terroirs for ‘Autre Cru’ is a selection of vineyards from villages located on both the left and right banks of the Marne Valley, outside of Flavien’s home village of Vandières. Vinification is with both spontaneous yeasts as well as selected strains from the estate; all aging is done in oak barrels. No dosage, disgorged December ‘24.

Flavien Nowack Champagne 'La Fontinette' Blanc de Meunier Extra Brut 2021
6 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $99.99!
Organic. 100% Meunier. The first of the single-vineyard Pinot Meunier bottlings that are flagships of the Nowack estate holdings; ‘La Fontinette’ is a mid-slope vineyard on clay-limestone soils, along with sand and marne; two meters beneath the surface the bedrock is pure ‘marne blanche.’ Vines were planted from 1960-1965, 1ha total. All fruit is from harvest 2021. Vinification is with fully spontaneous/natural yeasts; the base wine is unfined and unfiltered. Aging is done in small oak barrels.  1g/l dosage, disgorged January 2025.

Flavien Nowack Champagne 'Les Bauchets' Blanc de Pinot Brut Nature 2020
6 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $99.99!
Organic. 100% Pinot Noir. The only sparkling fully from Pinot Noir produced at Nowack that is from an estate single-vineyard. ‘Les Bauchets’ is on very pure white marne soils; Flavien mentions it’s visible right at the surface of the soils. The Pinot Noir at Bauchets was planted in 1980. Fruit is from harvest 2020. Vinification is with fully spontaneous/natural yeasts; the base wine is unfined and unfiltered. Aging is done in small oak barrels. No dosage; 2 g/L RS, disgorged January 2025.

Flavien Nowack Champagne 'Les Terres Bleues' Blanc de Meunier Extra Brut 2021
6 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $117.99!
Organic. 100% Pinot Noir. The only sparkling fully from Pinot Noir produced at Nowack that is from an estate single-vineyard. ‘Les Bauchets’ is on very pure white marne soils; Flavien mentions it’s visible right at the surface of the soils. The Pinot Noir at Bauchets was planted in 1980. Fruit is from harvest 2020. Vinification is with fully spontaneous/natural yeasts; the base wine is unfined and unfiltered. Aging is done in small oak barrels. No dosage; 2 g/L RS, disgorged January 2025.

Flavien Nowack Champagne 'La Tuilerie LV' Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut 2013
6 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $199.99!
Organic. 100% Chardonnay. This is a rare late release of the vintage ‘Tuilerie’ bottling; here ‘L.V.’ stands for super long lees aging. Sourced entirely from a 1.20 ha plot called La Tuilerie located in the middle altitude slopes of Vandieres (Mi-Coteau).  The vines average 25 years in age - the soil is white sand & limestone with marine subsoil (about 1.5-2 meters under the surface) and the land is directly facing south at 100-120 meters above sea level.  Spontaneous fermentation in a combination of small oak barrels and stainless steel.  Ageing in small oak barrels for the vin clair.  The vin clair is not chaptalized, fined, filtered, or cold stabilized and naturally goes through malo on its own in the Spring. 119 months in cellar on lees (under capsule, not cork as in some of the other Nowack bottlings). Dosage 0 g/L.

CALSAC WINES
Etienne Calsac Champagne ‘L’Échappée Belle’ 1er Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut NV 
48 Bottles, 3 MAGNUMS available
Sale Price: $66.99, $59.99/6, $53.99/12!!
Sale Price: $134.99/1.5L
Organic. 100% Chardonnay, all estate fruit. Half of the fruit is from Etienne's holdings in the Côte de Sézanne, one quarter from Grauves, and the last quarter from Bisseuil. Beginning in 2011, Étienne has kept a perpetual reserve just for this cuvée, and 20% of the final blend is produced with that reserve. Direct press of the entire harvest with separation of the juice. Only the "cuvée" is kept for the vinification (no head or tail of the press). Base wine (currently 2023) aged on the lees for seven months, 25% of which is aged in neutral 500-600 liter barrels, before bottling. 5g/L dosage. August '25 disgorgement (June for the magnums).

Etienne Calsac Champagne ‘Rose de Craie’ NV
3 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $89.99!
Organic. Roughly 90% Chardonnay,10% Pinot Noir. This wine is built off the same base as ‘L’Échappée Belle,’ (currently base 2023) with chalky Chardonnay parcels pulled from Côte de Sézanne, Grauves and Bisseuil. The Pinot Noir is sourced from a Grand Cru site in Montagne de Reims. It is technically a rosé d’assemblage, with Pinot Noir verjus added to the base wine of l’Échappée Belle before bottling. Aged anywhere from 18 – 24 months on lees at minimum in bottle. Disgorged August 2025. Dosage 4 g/L.

Etienne Calsac Champagne ‘Les Rocheforts’ 1er Cru Blanc de Blancs NV 1.5L MAGNUM
1 Magnum Available
Sale Price: $194.99/1.5L!
Organic. 100% Chardonnay. The base vintage of 2023 comprises 80% of the cuvée, with the other 20% coming from a reserve perpetual solera started in 2012. Sourced entirely from a single parcel called Les Rocheforts, situated in the town of Bisseuil, a premier cru village in the Côte des Blancs. Vines average 35 years in age- the soil is chalk and the exposure is southeast. Only the coeur de cuvee juice is used. Primary fermentation in tank with malolactic fermentation in a combination of barrel (15% for 7 months) and tank. Disgorged August 2025  (June for the magnums) with 4g/L dosage.

Etienne Calsac Champagne ‘Val l’Hermite’ Blanc de Noirs 2021
2 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $109.99!
Organic. 100% Pinot Noir. This wine is sourced from a single parcel, from a hamlet of the same name in the region of Bligny in the Aube. The parcel’s topsoil is highly calcareous; the vineyard is exposed south. This bottling is all from vintage 2021, vinified entirely in oak barrels, and aged under cork while on lees for roughly 38 months. Disgorged May 2025 with no dosage. Étienne makes this wine as the one full, regular expression of Blanc de Noirs in his portfolio; for a vintner who is from the Côtes des Blancs and has focused on Chardonnay for most of his winery’s existence, it represents a real curiosity and reach into the other serious, chalk-and-calcaire-driven parts of Champagne. Herbal, savory, and a bit more powerful, it’s a very different wine from the lightness you see in Calsac’s flagships, L’Échappée Belle and Les Rocheforts. Special stuff.

Etienne Calsac Champagne ‘Clos des Maladries’ Grand Cru Avize 2021
3 Bottles Available
Sale Price: $196.99!
Organic. 100% Chardonnay. Clos des Maladries is a Grand Cru, .16ha vineyard parcel in Avize, the vines planted in the early ’70s by Étienne's grandfather. ‘Maladries’ is the name of a medieval hospital housing contagious patients; one was located on the vineyard site centuries ago. The soil here is pure chalk of a prized type called belemnite, which is thought to impart greater minerality and acidity. The exposure is due south; the walls of the clos also retain heat, aiding in ripening. The vineyard is planted at a high density. After harvesting with manual sorting in the vineyard, the grapes are pressed—as an homage to the old way of making Champagne, everything is included at press rather than just the ‘coeur de cuvée’ as in his other wines. One third of the juice is transferred to a neutral 350L barrel; the rest is kept in stainless. After fermentation the wines are kept on lees in those same vessels without racking for seven months. Both portions go through malolactic fermentation. The wine stays on the lees for 48 months before disgorging in Feb of ‘25. Vintage 2021. Dosage is 2 g/L; 1000 bottles produced. 

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