Champagne village profile: Avirey-Lingey in the Barséquanais

Key facts

Located in subregion/area: Côte des Bar / Barséquanais
Vineyards and gape varieties: 149.7 hectares (369.9 acres), of which 89.6% Pinot Noir, 8.4% Chardonnay, 1.1% Pinot Meunier, and 1.0% others.
Classification: “Autre cru” (80%)

Maps

The map is linked from Wikimedia Commons, and the geographical information originates from OpenStreetMap. The dotted white area corresponds to the vineyards, light yellow is other open terrain, orange is built-up areas, and green indicates forest.

Google Maps view with the villages in the Barséquanais highlighted.

Clicking on a village opens a field to the left with a link to the village profile (if it exists).

Neighbouring villages within the Champagne appellation

Northeast: Polisy
East: Balnot-sur-Laignes
Southeast: Les Riceys
South: Bagneux-la-Fosse

View of Avirey-Lingey. Picture linked from Wikimedia Commons (photo Philippesalv, 2014).

The village

Avirey-Lingey is one of the neighbouring villages of Les Riceys, and is located in the southern part of the Aube department. The village is located at the Sarce river, which empties into Seine to the north, at Virey-sous-Bar and Courtenot.

Avirey is the southern part and Lingey the northern part, but they are very close apart.

The Avirey-Lingey commune has a surface of 1785 hectares and 217 inhabitants (as of 2013), referred to as Arivey-Lingeois and Arivey-Lingeoises.

The Sarce river at Avirey-Lingey. Picture linked from Wikimedia Commons (photo Havang(nl), 2009).

Vineyards

The vineyards in Avirey-Lingey are spread over several parts of the commune, with the largest concentration on a low hill in the southern part of the commune. The vineyards are made up of rather mild slopes of varying directions, and are completely dominated by Pinot Noir.

The current vineyard surface in the Avirey-Lingey commune is 149.7 hectares (369.9 acres). There are 134.1 ha Pinot Noir (89.6%), 12.5 ha Chardonnay (8.4%), 1.6 ha Pinot Meunier (1.1%), and 1.5 ha others (1.0%). Numbers from CIVC, as of 2013. In 1997, the vineyard surface was 130 ha. There are 42 vineyard owners (exploitants) in the commune.

Single vineyard sites

• La Bressoire is located immediately south of Lingey and west of the D32 road, directly at the facilities of Serge Mathieu. They are the sole owner of the 3 ha that this site covers.

Champagne producers

Champagne houses/négociants

The producer status NM = négociant-manipulant means that purchased grapes can be included in the Champagnes. NM producers can be anything from small producers that supplement their own grapes with some that they buy in, to large Champagne houses that primarily rely on purchased grapes.

• Dosnon (NM), until recently Dosnon & Lepage, is a newly established smaller producer of high quality. They have about 2 ha of their own vineyards in Avirey-Lingey and buys grapes from another 5 ha. The annual production of about 50 000 bottles. Vinification takes place completely in old Burgundy barrels, primarily from Puligny-Montrachet.
  History
  The house was started by Davy Dosnon, who trained in Beaune and worked in Burgundy (at Rossignol-Trapet in Gevrey-Chambertin) before returning to Champagne to work at Moutard (in Buxeuil) and Serge Mathieu. He inherited 2 ha of vineyards from his grandfather and in 2005 joined Simon-Charles Lepage. They quickly got attention as one of the new generation of small producers.
• Gustave Gossard (NM, older website). The producer is in conversion to organic cultivation since 2011, and was one of the founders of Terra Vitis Vignoble Champenois (within the overall Terra Vitis organisation) in 2012. Terra Vitis aims at creating a certification for sustainable viticulture. Before 2014, the Champagnes were sold under the brand Gossard & Dauphin. The company name is du Val de Sarce. The first of their Champagne produced completely from organically certified grapes is called Respect No 1 and is a 100% Pinot Noir. The range includes a vintage Champagne composed of 100% Chardonnay (refers to the 2004 vintage) that still is old under the Gossard & Dauphin brand.

Champagne growers

Producer status is indicated where known: RM = récoltant-manipulant, or grower-producers. RC = récoltant-coopérateur, growers that are cooperative members but sell Champagnes under their own name.

• Roland Chardin (RM), has 6 ha of vineyards.
• Florence Dauphin (RM), has 3 ha of vineyards. The range includes a vintage Champagne composed of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay (refers to the 2008 vintage).
• Gérard Gabriot (RC), has 2 ha of vineyards and 90 ha of cereals.
• Goussard-Delagneau (RM), has 13 ha of vineyards. The vintage Champagne is composed of 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir. Cuvée Ferdinand “4 Cépages” is composed of 50% Chardonnay and the rest Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Pinot Blanc.
• Marc Hennequière, has 3.3 ha of vineyards and an annual production of about 30 000 bottles. The range includes a vintage Champagne composed of 50% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir, and 5% Pinot Meunier.
• Ch. Marin & Fils (RM), where Ch is for Christian, has about 6 ha of vineyards with about 5 ha Pinot Noir, 0.8 ha Chardonnay, and a small amount Pinot Blanc. The range includes a vintage Champagne composed of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay.
• Serge Mathieu (RM), member of the small grower group Les Mains du Terroir de Champagne. They have just over 11 ha of vineyards, with 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. The 3 ha vineyard site La Bressoire is located directly at their facilities. Their range includes a vintage Champagne. Their extensive and humoristic website is well worth a look!
• Pescheux Père & Fils (RM)
• Germain Pidansat (RM), has 10 ha of vineyards. The vintage Champagne is compose of 100% Pinot Noir. Also produces Champagne under the brand Regny & Pidansat (MA, a marque d’acheteur).

Comment: the list may be incomplete.

Cooperatives

When bottles are sold directly by a cooperative the producer status is given as CM = coopérative de manipulation, as opposed to RC when sold by a cooperative member under their own name.

• Montaudon has facilities in Avirey-Lingey, under the name Vignobles Montaudon. Since 2010, Montaudon is a brand connected to Jacquart which is owned by Alliance Champagne, a major group of cooperatives, and has its seat in Reims.
  History
  Until 2008, Montaudon was a rather large family-owned Champagne house, with a history back to 1891. Philippe Montaudon took over the house in 1978, and in his day he bought 45 ha of vineyards in Avirey-Lingey (with surroundings?) and that’s why there is a Montaudon facility in the village. When Moët-Hennessy (LVMH) bought Montaudon in late 2008, the family kept the vineyards. In late 2010, Moët-Hennessy sold the brand and the production facilities to Alliance Champagne, but no grape contracts of vineyards. For that reason, I’m uncertain if the facility today is connected to the vineyards of the Montaudon family, or the Montaudon brand thus the Alliance Champagne production. I also don’t know if the vineyards of the Montaudon family currently delivers grapes to Moët-Hennessy, to Champagne Montaudon, or to some other buyer.

The town hall (mairie) in Avirey-Lingey, with a school in the same building. Picture linked from Wikimedia Commons (photo Philippesalv, 2014).

Links

• Wikipedia about this village in English, in French.
• (The Avirey-Lingey vineyard doesn’t have a website.)
• UMC’s village profile of Avirey-Lingey.
• Vineyard map of Avirey-Lingey at weinlagen-info.de.
• The Swedish version of this post.

© Tomas Eriksson 2016, last update 2017-01-21