At Champagne Club we are tasting a lot of new champagnes & vintages before the dead-line of the manuscript for Richard epic book ‘Champagne Magnum Opus’. We got some new releases from Hatt et Söner in Bergères-Lés-Vertus.
Hatt et Söner – The Story
This year Joseph Ruscon celebrated his 98th birthday and the occasion was of course fêted with the opening a bottle of champagne dedicated to the man himself, Le Grand-Père, a bottle that holds a story, our story, that began many years ago.
Toward the end of the seventies Joseph frequented blind champagne tastings and it was at one of these that he tasted the champagne created by the Vallois family that was to become what HATT et SÖNER is today. Yet, despite the friendship that grew between the two families of Ruscon and Vallois, never did Joseph imagine that some thirty years later his grandson would inextricably link them together by the love of his grandfather’s champagne of choice.
The Vallois family had worked in viniculture for four generations and thus had a proud tradition behind them. But when Joseph’s son Michel received a phone call from Francois Vallois in 2006 Michel heard the sadness in his voice when Francois told him that his daughters did not wish to take over the vineyard. In Champagne everything is about family and as a descendent from a family that had been in the wine trade for generations Michel easily understood Francois’s sadness at his daughters’ decision. Yet from this heavy-hearted phone call a seed was planted and slowly began to grow in the young and visionary mind of Kristofer Ruscon, Michel’s eldest son and Joseph’s grandson.
Over the next three years Kristofer nurtured that tiny seed to carefully spread its roots and become the foundation for what was to become HATT et SÖNER today. Together Kristofer, his father, the Vallois family and their investors soon discovered that change was necessary in order to move beyond what once had been and thus the idea of creating a bold, innovative champagne house was born. From that moment the house has steadily grown with a strong and powerful mission to make a real difference, in Champagne itself and beyond.
Today HATT et SÖNER has taken many of the steps to follow along the path we set out on over a decade ago including the joyous change of heart by Céline Vallois, Francois’ daughter who now studies at the school of viticulture and will inherit her father’s role as winemaker in 2021.
source Hatt et Söner
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