Champagne Erick Schreiber
Three things lift this maison out of the noise for me, and none of them is marketing:
First: Kimmeridgian soil. That's the soil most people associate with Chablis — bluish-grey limestone marl, studded with Jurassic fossil oysters. That the same soil exists in Champagne at all is something most don't know. It surfaces in the south, in the Vallée de la Seine and the Côte des Bar — exactly where Schreiber sits. For Pinot Noir this means a certain kind of tension: mineral, slightly taut, less fat-fruity than the chalkier soils further north. The maison says it plainly: "Notre sol géologique le ‹ Kimméridgien › de la vallée de la Seine apporte une grande finesse à tous nos Pinots Noirs." Full stop.
Second: Demeter + Ecocert. Both certifications. That doesn't mean "a bit environmentally conscious", it means: organic to Ecocert standard (no synthetic pesticides, no chemical fertilisers, annual inspection) plus biodynamics to Demeter standard (closed-farm organism, biodynamic preparations, lunar calendar for cellar work). Both running in parallel — that's a step beyond HVE and VDC. In Champagne, a double-digit percentage of houses are HVE; Demeter-certified ones are below two percent.
Third: Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. In the MK Minéral Rosé 2020, 20 % Pinot Blanc and 20 % Pinot Gris each. Both varieties are allowed in Champagne but rare — most houses work exclusively with the three main grapes. Four varieties in one cuvée, two of them rarities, is a statement.
Who and where
The maison carries the name Erick Schreiber and sits in the Côte des Bar / Vallée de la Seine in the Aube. Léa Remy signs the emails — she's the communication person at the maison. How exactly the generations and handover are organised, I can't yet cleanly reconstruct from the material in hand — that's one of the questions that will be folded in here after the maison visit.
Vignoble & soil
Region: Aube — Côte des Bar — Vallée de la Seine.
Soil: Kimmeridgian. The same marl as in Chablis (geologically, the Kimmeridgian stage of the upper Jurassic, ~150 million years old). In Champagne, this soil shows up almost exclusively in the southern part — the Grand Cru villages of the Marne further north sit on younger chalk substrate. Tasting a Pinot Noir grown on Kimmeridgian against one grown on Reims chalk, the difference is recognisable fairly quickly: Kimmeridgian brings a leaner, more saline minerality; the chalk a broader, softer expression.
Grape varieties: Pinot Noir dominates (91 % in Initial Brut), Chardonnay plays a secondary role, plus the two rarities Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris (in the MK Rosé). Pinot Meunier shows up in the low single digits.
Certifications: Ecocert + Demeter. Both are documented on the official technical sheets of the cuvées. In practice this means:
- Ecocert is France's largest organic certifier. Requirements follow EU organic standards: no synthetic pesticides, no systemic fungicides, no chemical fertilisers, annual external audit, five-year conversion period.
- Demeter is the biodynamic label. On top of all organic requirements: use of biodynamic preparations (horn manure 500, horn silica 501 and six more), treatment of the estate as a closed organism, attention to the lunar calendar for vineyard and cellar work, animals or animal manure as part of the farm cycle.
Running both in parallel is a choice — and the work is real, because two separate audit cycles run each year.
The cuvées
Two cuvée profiles from the maison's full technical sheets. The range has more cuvées (visible on champagne-schreiber.fr) — once I've had them in the glass, I'll add them here.
Initial Brut
The entry-level cuvée — and what the maison itself classifies as "the champagne for any celebration".
- Grapes: 91 % Pinot Noir, 4.6 % Chardonnay, 2.7 % Pinot Gris, 1.7 % Pinot Meunier
- Blend of vintages 2023, 2022, 2021 (not a millésime)
- 18 % reserve wine
- 3.7 % passage en fût (small wood share — texture without overt oak)
- Dosage 4.75 g/l — Brut formally, in practice on the low end
- Certification on the sheet: Ecocert + Demeter
- Conservation: 3 to 5 years according to the maison
- Format: 37.5 cl / 75 cl / 150 cl
Maison description: "fruity, generous, expressive". What the sheet also mentions — and what I find welcome — is the maison's own glassware recommendation: "glasses fairly wide at the base, narrowing at the top". So tulips, not flutes. That matches everything else I recommend on glassware.
MK Minéral Rosé 2020 (M.K. 157-20)
The premium cuvée — and the one with the most interesting stylistic decisions.
- Grapes: Saignée rosé with 4 varieties: 40 % Pinot Noir, 20 % Chardonnay, 20 % Pinot Blanc, 20 % Pinot Gris
- Vintage: 2020 (true millésime)
- 51.75 % passage en fût — over half the cuvée has had wood contact. Very unusual for rosé, which in Champagne is mostly raised reductively for freshness
- Dosage 1.60 g/l — effectively Brut Nature
- Certification: Ecocert + Demeter
- Conservation: 7 to 10 years — explicitly positioned as a cuvée with aging potential
- Format: 75 cl
Three statements in one bottle: four varieties (with Pinot Blanc + Gris as rarities), more than half in wood (against the general reductive trend for rosé), and near-zero dosage (for a maison whose range otherwise sits around 5 g/l). These aren't random parameters — they're decisions.
Maison description: "Richness, minerality and great finesse on the palate."
My tasting
Sample is on its way. Léa Remy confirmed on 19 May 2026 the shipment of the two cuvées — Initial Brut and MK Minéral Rosé 2020. This page is set up as a preview; once the bottles arrive and I've had them in the glass properly, tasting notes will come here and replace this notice. In parallel: the written interview with the maison is running, the answers will be folded into a dedicated section.
Facts
| Maison | Champagne Erick Schreiber |
| Category | RM (Récoltant-Manipulant) |
| Region | Aube — Côte des Bar — Vallée de la Seine |
| Soil | Kimmeridgian (kinship with Chablis) |
| Certifications | Ecocert (organic) + Demeter (biodynamic) |
| Main grape variety | Pinot Noir (~91 % in Initial Brut) |
| Rarities | Pinot Blanc + Pinot Gris (20 % each in MK Rosé) |
| Documented cuvées | Initial Brut · MK Minéral Rosé 2020 |
| Communication | Léa Remy |
| Email (communication) | gestion@champagne-schreiber.fr |
| Email (general) | champagne.schreiber@orange.fr |
| Website | champagne-schreiber.fr |
| Glass recommendation (maison) | tulip-shaped — "wide at the base, narrowing at the top" |
| Tasted cuvées (TCG) | 0 — sample en route |
Sources for this portrait: technical sheets sent directly by the maison (Initial Brut, MK Minéral Rosé 2020), photographic material (three images in the first batch, more announced by Léa — outdoor garden with bar, interior, barrel cellar), email exchange with Léa Remy of 19 May 2026. Tasting notes and interview responses will follow once sample bottles arrive.