When Caroline Latrive became chef de cave at Deutz, she wasn't looking to change the style of this historic Aÿ House. Like any new cellar master taking over from a centuries-old legacy, she was charged with protecting it.
Latrive arrived at Deutz in 2021, working alongside her predecessor, Michel Davesne, for 14 months before taking full responsibility for the wines. Her first harvest was 2022 and it’s only now that her influence is beginning to show with the new release Deutz Brut Classic and Deutz Brut Rosé.
The wines are fresher and more precise. I have tasted Deutz regularly over the years and have always associated its champagnes with elegance and generosity, but also a fairly recognisable winemaking signature: creamy textures, roundness and more obvious autolytic characters.
Those elements haven't disappeared, but the latest wines present greater emphasis on fruit, freshness and tension, and the winemaking seems to sit just slightly behind them.
Latrive is careful about claiming too much personal influence.
“My focus is to maintain the consistency and the expression of Deutz,” she says. “Each cellar master can give a personal touch.”
There is, however, considerable freedom in how she gets there. Deutz doesn't work to a fixed recipe, even for its most important blends. Proportions change, reserve wines move up and down and malolactic fermentation can be managed parcel by parcel. Latrive told me that even one or two per cent of a particular cru can materially change a blend, with more than 20 trials sometimes required before everything falls into place.
Having flexibility is particularly important given the increasingly different personalities of Champagne's vintages. During warmer years, Latrive may stop malolactic fermentation on selected parcels to retain freshness, later blending these with those that have completed the conversion. Chardonnay is also becoming increasingly useful in maintaining freshness and finesse.
Deutz's sourcing has become more concentrated around Aÿ too, with fruit for its blends largely drawn from around 75 crus within approximately 20 kilometres of the house. Its own vineyard holdings have grown to around 42 hectares, although estate fruit isn't automatically directed towards the more prestigious cuvées. Latrive makes that decision according to the quality and personality of each harvest.
At the top of the range, there is even greater latitude. For their celebrated Amour de Deutz, Latrive talks about blending in terms of emotion rather than percentages. There might be an idea of what the wine should become, but the blend is allowed to find its own way there. If a particular cru needs to move dramatically, it can. If the wine doesn't convince, it doesn't have to be made.
Deutz's latest non-vintage wines interested me most because these are the first to give a clearer impression of Latrive's own direction.
Deutz Brut Classic
Brut Classic is the most important blend at Deutz and the latest release is based on 2022, Latrive's first vintage at the house. It's also quite different to how I remember this champagne.
Smooth and crisp at the same time, it opens with crunchy green apple and nectarine, with good flesh through the middle but a cleaner, fresher profile overall. There is less of the overt autolytic, brioche character I've previously associated with Classic and much greater visibility of the fruit. It feels complete and ready to drink now, but more precise. I prefer it.
Interestingly, reserve wine accounts for 28% of the blend, compared with 57% in the previous release. It's a significant movement toward greater precision, and a good example of just how fluid the Deutz recipe is now. Dosage is a reasonable 6.5g/L.
Deutz Brut Rosé
Brut Rosé takes that evolution further and was perhaps the surprise of the tasting.
The blend is 73% pinot noir, 20% chardonnay and 7% meunier, with just 5% reserve wine and a dosage of 6.5g/L. A substantial proportion of the fruit now comes from Deutz's own vineyards. Pinot noir from Chaumuzy and Verzy brings a more austere character, while Bouzy and Ambonnay contribute greater generosity and gourmandise. Mareuil-sur-Aÿ brings elegance, while the chardonnay, primarily from Ambonnay, adds generosity and breadth.
Most interesting is the red wine component, which accounts for only 2.4% of the final blend. Latrive says it looks like ‘black ink’ after vinification, though you wouldn't necessarily guess it from the glass. The tiny red wine addition is possible because of its concentration. Specific plots are selected for red-wine production, looking for smaller berries and concentrated fruit, with Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ historically important sources.
The winemaking is deliberately gentle. Grapes are destemmed and undergo a short maceration, without punch-downs or pressing, before fermentation at low temperature and racking. The intention is concentration without extracting too much tannin.
There is a beautiful intensity of ripe strawberry on the nose, followed by Turkish delight, rosewater and a little musk. It is aromatic and immediately pretty, but the palate has enough freshness to stop all that ripe red fruit becoming too sweet or obvious.
It is still early to define a Caroline Latrive era at Deutz. Champagne moves slowly and many of the prestige wines carrying her full influence are still years away from release.
Brut Classic and Brut Rosé give us something more immediate. Latrive may describe her personal touch as something that should remain almost “invisible”, but in these latest releases, you can begin to taste it.
Score: Deutz Brut 90/100 points and Deutz Brut Rosé 91/100
