Champagne Richard-Fliniaux
An Aÿ Grand Cru family house built around Pinot Noir and Chardonnay cuvées, including the small release of Cuvée des Signataires.
At A Glance
- Field
- Detail
- Producer
- Champagne Richard-Fliniaux
- Region
- Champagne
- Village
- Aÿ, Grand Cru
- Main grapes
- Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
- Signature wine
- Cuvée des Signataires
- Defining feature
- Manual disgorgement à la volée and hand tied cork
The Producer
Champagne Richard-Fliniaux operates from Aÿ, a Grand Cru village in Champagne. It is a family house with Cuvée des Signataires as its signature wine. The cuvée uses Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Aÿ Grand Cru vineyards, giving the house a clear focus on the two varieties that shape its named wines.
The house works on a small scale for its signature release. Cuvée des Signataires appears in limited quantities, while Perle d'Aÿ offers another expression of the same two grape varieties with a distinct aromatic profile.
Place
Aÿ carries Grand Cru status within Champagne's village hierarchy. Grand Cru is the highest village classification in the region, so the designation identifies the origin of the fruit on the label.
Cuvée des Signataires comes from Aÿ Grand Cru vineyards. The village name therefore sits directly beside the wine's classification, linking the bottle to a specific Champagne village rather than to the region alone.
Story
The house was founded in 1905. Nadège Fliniaux took over family operations in 1997, inheriting the cellars of her grandfather Fernand Fliniaux.
The current family operation remains based in Aÿ, the Grand Cru village that supplies the fruit for Cuvée des Signataires. The succession and the village are both visible in the house's present wines.
Vineyards And Cellar
Cuvée des Signataires uses vines averaging 40 years old. The wine is manually disgorged à la volée, a method in which the sediment collected during bottle ageing is removed by hand, and it uses a hand tied cork.
The current specification gives the cuvée four years on lees. A 2018 bottling had two and a half years on lees. Lees ageing keeps the wine in contact with yeast sediment after fermentation and can develop fuller texture and mature aromas before disgorgement.
Wines
Cuvée des Signataires is the signature wine and the most limited named release, produced in approximately 500 bottles every other year. It is made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Aÿ Grand Cru vineyards.
Perle d'Aÿ is an equal blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Its aromatic profile brings dried fruits, hazelnuts, almonds and pastry, giving the named range a second style alongside the longer aged Cuvée des Signataires.
In The Glass
Cuvée des Signataires opens with mature aromas of red apples, toasted bread, cherries and nougat. The palate brings red apples, dried cherries and chocolate, followed by high acidity and minerality. Citrus and grapefruit remain through the long finish.
Perle d'Aÿ has marked carbonation and a finish shaped by bitterness and redcurrant jelly. The two wines therefore move in different sensory directions, with the Cuvée built around mature aromatic development and the Perle carrying a sharper, more bitter finish.
A Bottle To Understand It
Cuvée des Signataires is the bottle to open first. It combines equal parts Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Aÿ Grand Cru vineyards with the house's manual disgorgement and hand tied cork. Its approximately 500 bottle biennial release gives it a rare place within the named range, while the Grand Cru designation keeps the village at the front of the label.
Anecdote
Cuvée des Signataires is released as a tightly limited production, and the final cellar work is done by hand. Disgorgement takes place à la volée, removing the sediment gathered during bottle ageing, and the bottles receive hand tied corks. In traditional sparkling wine production, disgorgement prepares the bottle for its finished form after lees ageing. Here, the process is carried out manually for a cuvée made in a small release. The bottle leaves the cellar with the sediment removed and the cork secured by hand.
Final Word
Champagne Richard-Fliniaux is an Aÿ Grand Cru family house whose named wines center on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Cuvée des Signataires joins extended lees ageing with manual disgorgement and a small biennial release.
Sources
- www.champagne.fr/en/visit-champagne/directory-champagne-producers/champagne-richard-fliniaux
- fr.gaultmillau.com/en/wineries/richard-fliniaux/perle-d-ay-bsa
- www.richard-fliniaux.com
- www.champagnesweden.se/regis-fliniaux
- vintillmat.se/viner/r%C3%A9gis%20fliniaux%20cuv%C3%A9e%20des%20signataires%20grand%20cru%20brut.html