Flatiron Wines & Spirits SF

While Laherte’s wine focuses on complexity and elegance, Sébastien Mouzon’s L’Incandescent Rosé de Saignée takes a bolder, more vinous approach.

Sébastien is part of Champagne’s new wave—a vigneron who sees his role as steward of the land as much as a winemaker. He took over his family domaine in 2008 and immediately began the process of conversion to organic and ultimately biodynamic viticulture. His approach is holistic—interplanting trees, reducing interventions, and working with minimal sulfur. This is how he lets the terroir speak.

What makes Verzy’s terroir worthy of such attention? It’s a Grand Cru village like no other. Slightly higher in elevation (meaning hundreds of meters, not thousands—this isn’t the Alps!) and with many sites that face northeast, it gets less intense sunshine and develops less opulent fruit. But in this age of global warming, that just puts it right in the sweet spot for both freshness and subtle ripeness, with a long slow day of sunshine allowing a gentle development of fruit flavor while the terroir signatures of soil shine through.

And that soil is also a little different from much of Champagne. On the far east, there is a chalk-rich hillside, which is where most of the village’s Chardonnay is planted. The other two hills that make up the village have less chalk and more clay, and even some Silex (flint). Pinot is king in these soils, and it takes on a unique intensity. Unlike the more opulent, red-fruit-driven wines of south-facing grand crus Bouzy and Ambonnay, Verzy’s wines tend to be leaner, more structured, and nervy.

According to Peter Liem, Sébastien Mouzon was the first grower in Verzy to focus so single-mindedly on these micro-terroirs. But as we already noted, the farmers themselves could always see the differences. In fact, Sébastien’s grandfather found that a plot in the eastern, chalky side of Verzy was better suited to Pinot than Chardonnay and replanted it specifically for capturing a lifted, energetic Verzy rose.

Today Sébastien makes his Rosé de Saignée, L’Incandescent, from those vines. It is an electrifying expression of Pinot Noir from this land: powerful, darkly vinous, and mineral-driven. Aged for 30 months sur-lattes and finished with zero dosage, it showcases the stony soils and cool climate that define Verzy’s character.

Instead of blending still red wine into a white Champagne to turn it pink (as many rosés do), Sébastien makes this wine using the saignée method: he allows the juice to macerate on the grape skins for 19 hours before separating the juice and the solids. This gives the wine its intense color and deep, vinous character. Wild cherry, spice, dried flowers, and gamey undertones make this a rosé built for the table. Think duck breast, aged Comté, or even spicy dishes.