Frédéric Savart was born into a family of vignerons, but his real dream was to be a professional footballer. He even signed a youth contract with Stade de Reims, but after meeting the woman who was to become his wife, he refused a potential transfer to another club, and decided to return home to work with his father, Daniel. The family estate was founded by Daniel's father, René Savart, who purchased his first vines in 1947. Daniel himself took over the winemaking in the 1970s, although production remained extremely small until the mid-1980s, when he significantly expanded the family's vineyard holdings. Fred returned in 1993 at age 23 and in 2001 he left the cooperative, only doing pressing there. Since 2005, Frédéric has been at the helm of the estate.
Fred Savart works with two varieties, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, across two neighboring villages - Ecueil (3 ha) and Villers-aux-Noeuds (1 ha). His philosophy in the vineyards is to prevent disease as much as possible, rather than treat it—towards this end, he prefers a holistic approach, creating an environment within which the plant is better equipped to resist malady on its own.
Most of Savart's wines are fermented in stainless steel, although he is increasing the use of barriques, which he has been working with since 2004. Malolactic may be carried out or not, depending on the individual wine and the particularities of the vintage. That said, wines that have reserve wine in the final blend will go through malo because the wine has gone through more heating and cooling cycles. The dosage, which is generally low, is always MCR. "It's more neutral," says Savart, "and also, it's better than using a liqueur that's poorly made or poorly stored."
The 2017 was the first release of the Les Goutes d'Or. Only bottled in magnum and their most limited release. Entirely Chardonnay sourced from a single plot above Chemin de Chalon, it spends 10 months on the lees with no malolactic fermentation and just 2 grams dosage. This is a true rarity for the Champagne collector!
