Elise Dechannes says au revoir.
After 17 remarkable years, one of our favorites — the endlessly talented winemaker Elise Dechannes — is closing her estate, selling her unicorn wines and beginning an exciting new chapter in her extraordinary story.
Elise Dechannes’ story has all the makings of a great Hollywood film. The plot is a familiar one: the hero reaches the height of their career, then leaves it all behind to find a deeper purpose, enjoy a quieter life or serve some greater good. Elise announced recently that she’s shuttering her eponymous domaine and selling her vineyards. Her next move? It seems as though her adoring fans — fatcork included — are in for a surprise ending. Perhaps, we all should have seen it coming. Elise Dechannes’ life up until now has been anything but predictable.
Elise was born into a family of Champagne winemakers in the heart of the Aube’s famed Côtes de Bar. Her village, Les Riceys, is particularly revered for its limestone-rich Kimmeridgian soil that produces exceptionally elegant pinot noir. Les Riceys, is the only wine-growing area in France that can claim three appellations d’origine: AOC Champagne, AOC Rosé de Riceys — and AOC Côteaux Champenois for its still, red pinot noir wine.
After graduating from the renowned business school École Supérieure de Commerce de Reims, Elise dove into a career in finance and spent 10 years working in the insurance and banking industries. But by 2005, she realized that she wasn’t happy. She dreamed of returning to her roots and following in the footsteps of her mother, father and grandparents. That year, Elise quit her job at the bank, and went back to school to learn more about winemaking.
Elise arrived back in Les Riceys to begin her journey as a winemaker, and in 2008, she took ownership of her family’s Champagne estate. From there — armed with her family legacy, emboldened by her formal education and driven by her passion and sense of purpose — Elise flipped the script completely.
To begin, she rebranded the estate under her name: Elise Dechannes, and began the painstaking work of transitioning her five hectares of vineyards to biodynamic. She kept her interventions minimal, always connected to nature and gentle on the earth. She discontinued the use of herbicides and pesticides, turning to natural methods of controlling weeds and pests. She picked weeds by hand, turned the soil using a horse-drawn plough and harvested grapes selectively to promote healthy growth and eliminate waste.
As Elise’s biodynamic vineyards began to thrive, her neighbors, many of whom were struggling (and using chemical pesticides) with their own vineyards, took notice. She became an unapologetically outspoken advocate for biodynamic and organic viticulture in the Aube. In 2016, she joined Terre Avenir, an association dedicated to sustainable practices and environmental preservation, and achieved their prestigious ISO 14001 certification for her strictly biodynamic domaine.
Elise also parted ways with her family tradition in the way she makes her wine. She set up shop in the barn behind her family’s main house and drastically reduced her domaine’s annual production from 75,000 a year, an output established by her parents, to just 15,000 bottles a year. For each of her micro-releases, she is so confident in her clean, all natural, biodynamically cultivated grapes, that she uses the taille (or second pressing) along with the other pressed juices to craft cuvées that are beautifully bodied and complex. In the cellar, she experiments with unique fermentation vessels, including clay amphora. Similar to wood, clay amphora is porous, which allows the wine to breathe. It’s also a wonderful insulator, allowing more consistent temperature control. It imparts pure aromas, richness and depth of flavor.
For all of her efforts, Elise Dechannes has become one of the most recognized and well-respected grower Champagne producers in the world. So when Elise announced recently that she is closing down, selling her vineyards and marking up the prices on what she has left of her much-sought-after stock of stunning Champagne, shock waves rippled through Champagne and the wine-loving community at large. Here at fatcork, we have been honored to bring her stunning Champagnes to our customers over the past five years, and we are beyond grateful to call her a friend. She hasn’t yet revealed what’s next, but if we know Elise, it’ll be a story worth watching until the very end.
Join us in celebrating the last of the “unicorn” wines from Elise Dechannes. Don’t miss your chance to purchase them below.
Elise Dechannes Essentielle Blanc de Noirs Brut Nature
Limit six per customer
Elise Dechannes Coeur de Noir Blanc de Noirs Brut Nature
Limit three per customer
Elise Dechannes Absolue Grès Blanc de Noirs Brut Nature
Limit three per customer
Elise Dechannes Absolue Terre Blanc de Noirs Brut Nature
Limit three per customer