Champagne Pierre Deville

Champagne Pierre Deville is made by Alban Corbeaux at Verzy, a Grand Cru village on the Montagne de Reims. He came back to the family estate in 2016, the fourth generation, and works 36 small parcels. Around 20,000 bottles a year, fermented on wild yeast in used barrels and bottled with very little dosage.

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Alban Corbeaux, the fourth generation at Verzy

The estate carries the name of Pierre Deville, Alban's great-grandfather, who began making his own Champagne in 1963 instead of selling the family's grapes on. Alban Corbeaux returned in 2016 after studying oenology and working harvests in Burgundy, and runs it now as the fourth generation. His father Christophe still works the vines with him.

Home is Verzy, a Grand Cru village on the northern edge of the Montagne de Reims. Verzy faces north and east, which in the old way of thinking about Champagne was a disadvantage, and in a region that keeps getting warmer has quietly become the opposite.

The holding is about 5 hectares split across 36 parcels, with roughly four of those hectares inside Verzy itself. Both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are planted, and the balance between them shifts from site to site.

The vineyards are hand-harvested and farmed without chemical weedkillers. Total production is around 20,000 bottles a year, which is very small by Champagne standards.

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Bottle of Champagne Pierre Deville Primitif Extra Brut from Verzy beside a glass of deep golden wine

Cuvée Primitif and the Copin single vineyards

Cuvée Primitif is the wine we have in, and it is the right place to meet the estate. It is roughly 80 percent Pinot Noir to 20 percent Chardonnay, drawn from the Verzy parcels and bottled Extra Brut at around 5 grams of dosage. Ours is the 2022 base.

The rest of the range is built around the word copin, Alban's shorthand for the old friends among his vineyards. Les Copins 50/50 is an equal split of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the older Verzy sites, bottled at one or two grams depending on the year.

Copin Chardonnay is a blanc de blancs from Les Alouettes and Les Epinettes. Copin Pinot Noir is the blanc de noirs, off Les Queues des Loges, Les Monts de Bruyères and La Porte des Grands Champs. La Blanche Voie is a rose made by maceration rather than by blending in red wine.

He also bottles a still red, Verzy Rouge, under the Coteaux Champenois appellation, which is pure Pinot Noir and the kind of thing almost nobody in Champagne bothered with until recently.

Bottle of Champagne Pierre Deville Primitif beside a prawn taco on a cut glass plate

A yeast culture started from unripe grapes

The cellar detail worth knowing is how fermentation gets going. Rather than buying in a cultured yeast, Alban picks grapes five to ten days before the main harvest, while they are still unripe, and uses them to start a culture. The ferment that follows is his own vineyard's population rather than a packet.

The wines go into used barriques, not new oak, and sit on their full lees for around nine months before tirage in June. There are two pneumatic presses on site, one of 2,000 kilos and one of 4,000, so lots can be kept apart rather than pooled.

Dosage is deliberately very low throughout, between one and five grams across the range. On sulphur he is sparing: a small amount is used only where a wine needs it, rather than as a matter of routine.

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FAQ about Champagne Pierre Deville

Who makes Champagne Pierre Deville?

Alban Corbeaux, who returned to the family estate in 2016 and runs it in the fourth generation. The estate is named after his great-grandfather Pierre Deville, who started bottling his own Champagne in 1963.

Is Pierre Deville Grand Cru?

Yes. The estate is based in Verzy on the Montagne de Reims, which is a Grand Cru village, and the Verzy wines carry that status. Alban farms about 5 hectares across 36 parcels, roughly four hectares of it inside Verzy.

What is Cuvée Primitif?

The house cuvée and the one we stock. It is around 80 percent Pinot Noir to 20 percent Chardonnay from the Verzy parcels, bottled Extra Brut at about 5 grams of dosage. Ours is the 2022 base.

How much Pierre Deville is made?

Around 20,000 bottles a year in total, across the whole range. That is tiny for Champagne, and it is split further across several single vineyard cuvées, so individual wines are made in very small numbers.

Does Pierre Deville use added sulphur?

Only sparingly, and only where a particular wine needs it rather than as routine. The wines are not sold as zero-sulphur Champagnes.

What else does Pierre Deville make?

Les Copins 50/50, an equal Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend, the Copin Chardonnay and Copin Pinot Noir single vineyard bottlings, a macerated rose called La Blanche Voie, and a still red Coteaux Champenois called Verzy Rouge.