Ulysse Collin Rosé de Saignée Les Maillons Vertical

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | JANUARY 02, 2024

My most recent visit to Champagne Ulysse Collin was not especially well-timed. Then again, maybe it was. Olivier Collin had just finished disgorging his next set of releases, so I could not taste those wines. Instead, Collin surprised me with a vertical of his Rosé de Saignée Les Maillons, long one of my favorites here and a wine I have followed since its debut. Rosé de Saignée is also a style of Champagne I personally enjoy quite a bit, as it is so well suited to the dinner table.

Champagne Ulysse Collin is one of the great success stories in Champagne of the last twenty years. Although the family lineage goes back more than 200 years, the domaine in its current incarnation was launched in 2003 when Olivier Collin and his wife, Sandra Zaragoza, reclaimed vineyards that had been under long-term leases to Pommery.

Collin’s Rosé de Saignée Les Maillons across eight releases.

The casual visitor could be forgiven for driving past Champagne Ulysse Collin. The unassuming domaine is located in Congy, a small, sleepy village in the Côteaux du Petit Morin, just south of the Côtes des Blancs, in the middle of nowhere, as we might say colloquially. The very simple, agrarian setting and lack of nearby elite grower estates or famous villages is quite different from what is commonly found in other regions within Champagne, even those that are less developed. Olivier Collin seems to like it that way. Whereas most of his colleagues run in circles of producer friends/colleagues, Collin is quite happy to be a loner. The same is true of large showcase tastings and events, which Collin avoids. Instead, the focus here is on vineyards, the cellar, the wines and the family. That’s pretty much about it. The results are in the glass.