Domaine de Bichery La Source 2022
Domaine de Bichery La Source 2022 – alternate view 2
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Domaine de Bichery La Source 2022

Domaine de Bichery
$73.00

Grape: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier
Vintage: 2022
Type: Sparkling

This grower Champagne is the flagship cuvée crafted by Raphaël Piconnet from three organic plots: Val Ligé, La Fontaine du Noyers, and L'Envers. The blend incorporates fifty percent pinot noir, forty percent chardonnay, and ten percent pinot meunier, managed under Ecocert guidelines. Vinification utilizes native vineyard yeasts, aging the base wine sixty percent in used oak barrels and forty percent in stainless steel. It undergoes secondary bottle fermentation and is disgorged with zero dosage and zero added sulfur.

It pours a pale gold color with a fine stream of bubbles, releasing aromatics of honey, baked apples, and red berries. A medium-bodied frame balances concentrated fruit flavors with a sharp line of natural acidity. Savory nuances of salted nuts and a touch of caramel wrap around a round mouthfeel. A bracing wave of maritime salinity runs through mid-palate, keeping the profile balanced and fresh.

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.