Domaine de Bichery Les Fontaines 2022
Domaine de Bichery Les Fontaines 2022 – alternate view 2
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Domaine de Bichery Les Fontaines 2022

Domaine de Bichery
$80.00

Grape: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2022
Type: Sparkling

This grower Champagne rosé is sourced from thirty-year-old vines in a specific parcel chosen for the distinctive character of its pinot noir. Winemaker Raphaël Piconnet harvests fifteen percent of the fruit ten days late to achieve higher natural sugar concentrations for the red wine component. The base wine is vinified partially under wood using spontaneous native yeast fermentations without chemical corrections. It completes secondary fermentation in the cellar and is finished as a dry, low-intervention bottling.

It radiates a pale copper-pink color, releasing expressive aromas of strawberry, watermelon, fresh cherry, and apple zest. On the palate, the light-bodied frame is exceptionally juicy and racy, focusing on a precise fruit presentation. Subtle notes of cedar and green apple interweave with a distinct vein of mineral salinity. The fine-grained texture builds a clean, incisive structure across the mid-palate volume. It finishes completely clean and persistent, leaving a mouthwatering mineral trace.

Winery

Domaine de Bichery is the project of Raphaël and Hannah Piconnet in Neuville-sur-Seine, in Champagne’s southern Côte des Bar. Raphaël grew up among family vineyards whose grapes had long been sold to a cooperative. After studying in Burgundy and Switzerland and gaining experience elsewhere, he returned with Hannah to farm and bottle their own wines. Their first Champagne vintage was 2015, alongside the conversion of their vineyards to organic agriculture. Family planting material and the individual hillside parcels remain important parts of the domaine’s identity.

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay form the basis of the range. La Source offers the starting point, while Les Fontaines explores rosé and its relationship to a particular parcel. Fermentation and maturation use both barrels and stainless steel, chosen according to the wine. In favorable years, the couple also makes red and white Coteaux Champenois with longer barrel aging. That still-wine work reinforces the project’s focus on the vineyards themselves: the bubbles are one expression of the land, rather than the entire story.