Adrien Renoir Champagne
Adrien Renoir is the fourth generation of a family farming in Grand Cru Verzy on the Montagne de Reims. His father Vincent farmed the same four hectares before him — selling fruit to the large houses, as most small growers in the region did, before Adrien began bottling under his own name.
Adrien took over complete operations in 2014 and immediately began converting the domaine toward organic farming — a slow process in Champagne’s northern climate where disease pressure is significant. The domaine received full organic certification in 2020. He also embraces biodynamic practices alongside the organic certification.
The range is built around three specific lieu-dits: Les Montants, Les Épinettes, and Les Vignes Goisses — each a massale selection planting established between 1961 and 1971, whose roots have had decades to find the chalk beneath the Verzy surface. These are vines that predate Adrien’s involvement with the domaine entirely — planted by the generation before his father, on the same chalk-rich Grand Cru slopes that have defined Verzy’s character for centuries.
In the cellar Adrien ferments everything in barrel — old oak barriques for the primary fermentation, large oak foudres for the reserve wines. No stainless steel. No temperature control. Indigenous yeasts throughout. Zero dosage across the entire range. The Wine Advocate awarded 94 points to Le Terroir — describing it as “long and penetrating, a beautifully balanced Champagne from this promising emerging talent.”
The three lieu-dit single-parcel cuvées — Les Montants (100% Chardonnay), Les Vignes Goisses (100% Petit Meunier), and Les Épinettes — represent the clearest expression of what each specific plot produces when left to speak for itself. Adrien also makes Le Terroir as a blend across all three parcels, Le Cépage as a Blanc de Noirs from Pinot Noir, a Solera called Les Années drawing from consecutive harvests, and a Grand Cru Rosé from Verzy and Bouzy.