Champagne carbon footprint, sustainable Champagne, carbon neutral Champagne, eco-friendly Champagne packaging, Champagne greenwashing, Champagne sailboat shipping, upcycled Champagne bottles
by Lucy Edwards · source ↗
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Rooted in Chouilly, the Hostomme family has been shaping wine for nearly a century, from its beginnings in polyculture and post-phylloxera recovery, to its reputation today as a producer unafraid to experiment with forgotten grapes, unconventional élevage, and even sea-aging. At the helm is Laurent Hostomme, the fourth generation to steward the family name. For him, Champagne is not only an inheritance but a living philosophy, grounded in respect, generosity, and continuity.
The rainy drive to Buxeuil reveals the character of the Côte des Bar: rural, rugged, and refreshingly unpolished. Far from the manicured elegance of the Montagne de Reims or the Côte des Blancs, this is Champagne’s earthy, southern sibling, raw and unapologetically itself. Alexandre Moutard, third generation, greets me with the ease of someone entirely at home in his surroundings: no fuss, no grand introduction, just a handshake, a smile, and a sense that we can get straight to the real stuff....
Anyone with a working knowledge of champagne knows there are two fermentations: one to turn grape juice into still wine, and one to transform that wine into champagne. This second fermentation happens inside the bottle and is triggered by the addition of sugar and yeast, a process known as prise de mousse . That, in theory, is where the magic happens... But what happens when the magic doesn’t happen? What if the second fermentation doesn’t take? What if the wine develops oxidative notes that...
