In our next meet the winemaker conversation, we talk with Marine Vincey-Zabarino about pioneering winemaking in the Grand Cru village of Oger.
In the tradition-bound region of Champagne, where generational legacies span centuries, Domaine Vincey represents something quite different. Located in the Grand Cru village of Oger in the Côte des Blancs, a husband-and-wife team has transformed the family’s domaine from supplying grapes to acclaimed wine growers in just over a decade, crafting champagnes that challenge conventional expectations in the area.
Quentin Vincey, an eighth-generation wine grower, and his wife Marine Vincey-Zabarino have built their reputation on meticulous craftsmanship, biodynamic farming, and an uncompromising respect for terroir. In 2014 they released their first champagne from old vines dating back to 1954—a 100% Blanc de Blancs that immediately caught the attention of wine enthusiasts worldwide.
What drove you and Quentin to shift from supplying grapes to making your own wine?
When Quentin took over (the domaine) from his father, his love for wine drove him to go to the end of the process—not just growing grapes but making wine from it. He wanted to discover the taste of his different terroirs, mostly located in the Côte des Blancs, but also in the Marne Valley, where I come from as well.
The purpose was to show the diversity of the terroir even with one variety, which is chardonnay. We wanted to make wine as we love to enjoy it ourselves.
That must have been a significant risk, especially in a village where most producers work with cooperatives.
It's true that we had nothing to lose initially, but we also had nothing—no facilities for making wine, nothing. So that was a huge investment for us. The other point is that we didn't know at all how to make wine. We began with just a tiny production. When Quentin started, he didn't think very much about the success he might have or how the bottles would sell. He began with just a tiny production to have fun.
But time moves slowly when you settle down in Champagne. We waited six years before releasing our very first vintage, and that was back in 2020. The wines are quite different from 2014 to 2020 because we evolved with the knowledge we gained through those years.
Your champagnes have a distinctly generous, almost Burgundian style that differs dramatically from the typical austere Côte des Blancs profile. Was this intentional?
What we propose is totally different from the typical model of Côte des Blancs. It's due to the Oger terroir, which is most of the time misunderstood. People don't know the taste of Oger, which isn't that crisp or austere. We knew we would propose something totally apart from the idea people might have of wines from the Côte des Blancs.
We kind of trust the terroir. We produce wine without any rigid framework—something very natural. We're like parents raising a child—we try to raise the wine but let it speak for itself first.
Your winemaking approach is notably low-intervention. Can you explain your philosophy?
We use traditional 4,000-kilogram basket press, limit sulfur use, and rely on gravity to transport the must into the cellar. Our wines are fermented using indigenous yeast in French oak. Up to vintage 2019, we used sulfites only at the pressing moment. Since 2020, we created a system for the juice to go directly by gravity to the cellar, so we avoid sulfites entirely now. The 2020 vintage is our first without any sulfites, and malolactic fermentation now happens automatically.
The use of sulfites isn't dogmatic. If one year we see it's a problem, we'll use them. For us, the dose is the poison—it depends on how much you use. We trust the wine, and we taste constantly throughout the process.
You've also experimented with flor, which is unusual for champagne.
The flor happens naturally on some terroirs. For example, our parcels from Le Mésnil-sur-Oger almost always creates that natural flor. We trust the terroir—if it goes this way, it's because that's what it wants to express. So we go with it.
You initially worked with both stainless steel and oak but eventually committed entirely to oak. Why?
We had two cuvées in the early days—'La Première' and 'Le Grand Jardin.' Le Grand Jardin was always made in oak barrels and aged with cork for bottle aging. La Première was experimental, using 50% stainless steel tanks and 50% oak barrels, aged under crown caps.
We already had in mind to work only with living materials. We wanted a certain micro-oxygenation that could only be achieved with oak. Stainless steel tanks are very inert. When we moved to our current winery for the 2016 vintage, we decided to put all production into oak barrels to achieve that micro-oxygenation, and we abandoned crown caps for corks to continue the exchange with the outside.
Your journey to organic and biodynamic certification wasn't straightforward. How did you learn these methods?
Quentin began working with his father in 2009 using traditional conventional approaches. The first transformation to organic happened when he began making wine in 2014. In Oger, there's Laurent Vauversin, another organic producer who went to wine school with Quentin. He began asking Laurent questions about alternatives possible in the vineyards.
We continued discussions with the Waris-Larmandier family regarding biodynamics. What was nice for us was applying actions regarding the soil—everything begins underground with the plant roots. We wanted solutions to fight all the problems we faced in the vineyards while maintaining our cultural methods.
We trained with people like the Horiot family; Olivier Horiot gave us lots of knowledge about biodynamics. We also wanted to learn about using plants in treatments, so we trained with Eric Petiot, who has published many manuals about the plants you can use and how to make teas and infusions.
How do you apply these methods practically in your vineyards?
We have preparations to apply when following biodynamic rules, and we make our own compost with Stéphane Regnault, a winemaker based in Le Mésnil-sur-Oger. We share practical knowledge and even team members with him.
We adjust treatments—the doses of copper and sulfur. We always use plants, no matter what type of vintage we face, whether easy or difficult. The timing follows the vegetative cycle. It's important to talk about soil management too—how we plow or don't plow, how we mow or don't mow the grass, because it all goes together.
Looking ahead, what's your vision for Domaine Vincey?
We're entrepreneurs at heart, and we love challenging ourselves. This is our 11th harvest, and we haven't reached our total production capacity yet due to financial constraints, but otherwise we would move forward faster. We need time to age our wines to propose them ready to drink—we don't ask consumers to keep our wines for them to be ready.
We continue to evolve with each vintage, refining our approach while staying true to our philosophy of letting the terroir express itself naturally. That's what makes this journey so exciting.
Domaine Vincey's champagnes are available through selected importers worldwide, with their latest release, Oger 2020, representing over a decade of refinement in their unique approach to champagne winemaking.
