Champagne Pascal Walczak | Les Riceys, Côte des Bar

Coming from a family of winemakers, Pascal Walczak’s dream was to create his own domain as a winegrower, producing Champagne in Les Riceys. His long and exciting journey began in 1973 and today, they have 10 hectares of vines with which they produce their own Champagnes and their famous Rosé des Riceys (AOP specific to the commune).

Pascal’s son, Sebastien joined the family business in 2003 and sought to enhance the production of their wines whilst honouring the terroir and nature and upholding the exceptional quality of their  cuvées.

When we met Sebastian, he explained that they cultivate their vines without any herbicides and with a discipline that allows them to harvest aromatic grapes, expressive and representative of their soils. 

Today Champagne Walczak possess a total of 10 hectares, made up of a small portion of pinot meunier (approximately 0.01%), 2 hectares of chardonnay and the remaining vast majority is Pinot Noir. Their oldest vines were planted in 1967.

Les Riceys is a wine village of conserved character located in the heart of the Côte des Bar. 

Formed by three villages, you will find a rich and wealthy heritage; three renaissance churches, several chapels and a castle (garden drawn by Le Nôtre). With 288 wine exploitations working on 866 hectares of vineyards, Les Riceys is the Champagne region’s largest winemaking commune.

Much further away from the other sub-regions, La Côte des Bar is located in the southern branch of the Champagne vineyards, in the Aube department. It is locally divided into two areas: Bar Séquanais and Bar-sur-Aubois.

La Côte des Bar is the most undiscovered terroir and is located very close to Burgundy. Les Riceys is just 2 km from the Burgundy border (about 56 km from Chablis). This part of the Champagne region is significantly more rural and rustic than the other sub-regions.

The soils of the terroir are mainly composed of relatively thick/hard limestone and marl. Its south-east orientation allows it to benefit from abundant morning sunshine, which provides light champagnes, extremely pleasant on the palate.

The continental and oceanic climate, coupled with the characteristics of the soil, provide optimal growing conditions for pinot noir, which can be distinguished from the pinot noir of Montagne de Reims.  Chardonnay and pinot meunier also grow but in smaller volumes, we also find small quantities of the rare pinot blanc.  

Champagnes from the Côte des Bar are wines of character, with beautiful roundness and complex aromas. They are a little richer and more full-bodied than those of other sub-regions. Some would say that these champagnes are more rustic, have more personality, the essence of the grapes feels good on the palate, and they have an extrovert character, fascinating and attractive.

Larger champagne houses are known to source grapes from La Côte des Bar when looking to inject new personality traits or dimensions within their champagnes.