Suenen

Besøk på champagneturen 26.10.14:

Aurelien Suenen er en ambiøs ung mann som tok seg god tid til å vise oss både vinmarker og smaking av sine champagner. Vinhuset holder til i Cramant, vi smakte oss igjennom vin clair fra 2014 og husets champagne har en lineær og citrusaktig stil, stramt og korrekt, bare ståltank og moderat bruk av dosage.

Champagne Cuvee Rèserve 2011 Brut
Bare fra 2011 årgangen. 45% pinot meunier, 45 % pinot noir, 10% chardonnay & 8g/l dosage. Mye mousse, 100% ståltank, grønn og vegetal. 84 poeng.

Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Extra Brut 2011 
Bare fra 2010 årgangen. Gogget 14. januar 2014. 3,5 g/l  dosage. Mye mousse, moderat duft. Frisk og rik, Full malo med litt bitter ettersmak. 88 poeng.

One has to travel back in time to understand the origins of the Suenen Champagne. Since 1898 generations of strong-minded and wine- passionate men and women have succeeded one another…

It is said that our family name comes from “Svenen”, a Belgium family who came to live in Damery… the home of my great grandfather. With his wife Eliza-Victorine Billiard, they gave birth to a son, Joseph, in 1871. Wine was of course not on the agenda yet. Grapes were collected from the Cramant vineyards and sold to the existing reknown wine-making houses.

Joseph and his wife Laurentine Robert settled into the family household and had two children: Paulette and Marcel, my great grandfather born in 1899. Today still and in that same house, my grandmother’s souvenirs attest to the genesis of the Suenen Champagne brand.

In 1924 Marcel married Simone Stourbe. They decided to commercialise a single vat of dry Blanc de Blancs named “Champagne Suenen Stourbe”, hand-bottled and stamped by Simone herself.

Their sons Bernard and André took over the trade. Bernard and his wife soon opened a deli grocery in Cramant. During the fifties, with the birth of my father Daniel and his brother Jean Claude, our family grew bigger. As the latter chose to follow a teaching career, my father showed a great interest in wine growing since a very young age. Both my grandfather and father worked together for 18 years, until Daniel took control of the business. At only 25, his desire to develop the vineyard’s activity flourished and he was soon in search of new land plots to purchase. My father’s work contributed to increasing the quality and sales of the Suenen Champagne. Thanks to his determination, the choice in the range of our champagne widened and the first vintage wines were bottled. Sales increased from 4000 to 20 000 bottles. Then he married my mother Chantal Person de la Villa, and started a new generation to whom I belong…