Story
Aurélien Suenen
Oiry · Champagne · France
In the Côtes des Blanc, Aurélien Suenen, a former basketball player, took charge of his family’s Cramant estate in 2009, when his father fell ill. Inspired by his friend Pascal Agrapart, he has been committed to express the individual characters of the terroirs through conscientious work in both the vineyards & the cellar. Most of his vineyards are organic, with some biodynamic trials. He is focused on his Côtes des Blanc vineyards and has sold most of his pinot noir & meunier grapes. In the cellar, he vinifies most of his production in either enamel-lined or egg-shaped concrete tanks, and just a few in oak of various sizes.
“His fermentations are carried out with indigenous yeasts, and the wines may or may not go through malolactic fermentation, depending on their individual characteristics.”
While Suenen has followed the family tradition of blending different grapes & parcels, he has now restructured his cuvées to better reflect his terroir-focused philosophy. He has two non vintage blanc de blancs champagnes, the C+C (blended from Cramant & Chouilly), while the other is entirely from Oiry. In addition, Suenen has created vintage, single-vineyard champagnes : Cramant Les Robarts, Oiry La Cocluette, Mont-Aigu La Grande Vigne.
