"Today, the Aube has plenty of rising stars (and likely some shooting stars too), but the softly spoken Aurélien Gerbais is one of the most promising and most confidence-inspiring.
This 18-hectare estate in Celles-sur-Ource was planted by Aurélien's grandfather and father and today amounts to some 50% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, and 25% Pinot Blanc, divided pretty equally between northerly and southerly expositions. Much of the Gerbais holdings, moreover, have never seen synthetic pesticides and fungicides, as it was planted after the family abandoned these products. Aurélien himself studied in Burgundy and worked with Olivier Lamy [of Domaine Hubert Lamy] in Saint-Aubin in 2008, returning to the estate in 2011 and immediately establishing perpetual reserves with a view to reimagining the range around a series of lieu-dit bottlings.
Hard work in the vineyards, which are farmed organically, is followed by picking, sorting (rare in Champagne, where separation of press fractions is often deemed an adequate response to imperfect sanitary conditions at harvest), and vinification in tank without sulfites. Today, a decade's work is finally coming to fruition in the form of complex, refined, elegantly vinous Champagnes that are emerging as some of the region's most compelling, taking this estate from the ranks of the region's solid producers into the category of the exceptional. So, readers who haven't tasted the Gerbais wines for a few years should make haste to acquaint themselves with all these developments." William Kelley, Wine Advocate |
