Baron Dauvergne- Oeil de Perdrix, NV

The region around Bouzy is Pinot Noir kingdom. At the time, wines that were made solely from this variety of grape were amber in color, neither white or rose and were therefore named Eye of the Partridge or Oeil de Perdrix in French, due to the color resemblance with this bird’s eyes color. Technically, the amber color was (and still is) coming from the soaking of the black grape skin into its own just pressed juice, called in French, the mout.

Some Producers will confess You that, in fact, at the beginning this Oeil de Perdrix Champagne is the result of a mistake or error, just like a lot of the best French cooking recipes

At this period, the transportation and storage conditions were quite basic. So it happens frequently that the Pinot Noirs grape, once harvested, stay long moment into huge baskets and was partly squeezed due to bad transportation conditions. Then, they quickly realize that grapes soaked into their own juice for few hours (in fact, the time needed for the daily harvest to be brought back home) give a gentle amber color to the mout and very interesting flavors and aromas to the future Champagne.