Champagne Piot-Sévillano – Interview With Christine Sévillano

The love of Champagne is infinite, a language that everyone can understand, a sparkle that can shine in anyone’s glass, it can connect people, brings them together and places a smile on faces around the world.

In this exclusive feature on Glass of Bubbly, we speak with Christine Sévillano, the Owner and Winemaker of Champagne Piot-Sévillano, let’s discover a little about his life, his journey into the industry and one of his favourite Champagne memories.

It’s Great To Speak With You, Christine, Can You Tell Us A Little About Yourself & How Your Journey Into The Champagne Industry Began?

“I was working in Paris as a journalist specializing in the environment and I was married to my husband who was a webmaster in Paris too. My parents wanted to retire so we decided to go back to school and learn how to run a winery and we succeeded them after more than a year of training. I’ve told them “If you retire, please let me run the business as I want to”. I didn’t want a cohabitation between generations because I wanted to have freedom while I was modernizing, reorganizing and developing the business, even if of course I was happy to receive some advice from my parents, especially technical ones.”

Do You Remember Your First Experience With Champagne? 

“I have always been in Champagne but I remember especially one dinner when I was seven years old with my family for Christmas. I had the opportunity to taste the Brut Tradition made by my parents at the winery, just a few on my lips and it was the first contact with bubbles! Some growers will tell you that they were baptized with Champagne and this is actually generally the case!”

How Rewarding And Challenging Is Running Your Own Champagne House?

“I am very grateful regarding my job because I feel that I can participate in a whole industry, something bigger than just me, something that will keep going on after me, something that I have the charge to transmit to my children and that I have inherited from my parents and grandparents. I feel like I have to pursue a kind of artwork to give people pleasure emotion and eternity moments. What is also very important to me is the feeling that I have to protect nature because I have narrated a certain Land from my ancestors that I have to pass on to the next generations in good health and I am very happy to be engaged in sustainable practices and to be involved in this transmission. Of course, this job is also very challenging not only because of global warming but also because of threats coming from market political regulations that you have to take into account to make your business survive. That’s also why I wanted to get involved in the defense of the interest of independent winegrowers and winemakers because I feel like our family-business model could be in danger and I wanted to protect it.”

When It Comes To Pairing Champagne With Food, Do You Have Any Favourite Combinations That You Would Personally Recommend?

“I remember especially one pairing that really impacted me. It was in New York in an Italian restaurant in which one of our Champagnes called Prestige was introduced. It is a Champagne that has been aged for 7 years in the cellar and is only made with Pinot Noir and Meunier, this was paired with truffle. I really felt I was in Plazza Navona in Roma that day! Regarding fresher pairings, I also love Chardonnay with salmon and I remember once when I had a kind of picnic with salmon terrines and my 100% Chardonnay Champagne called The Rebelle in the middle of my vines, that was Paradise!”

Can You Share With Us A Little About Your Ratafia, And Why You Decided To Produce Your Own Label Of This Incredible Liqueur?

“I have always wanted to produce ratafia based on Meunier because I have already produced three still wines based on Meunier: white, rosé and red. I really made the decision when I met a Danish mixologist before covid and I have made the decision to supply him with some ratafia for his cocktails and that’s why we have created it. The story about the ratafia is funny because actually we harvested the grapes in 2019 and we wanted to bottle the ratafia in 2021 but as covid was still going on, we had trouble finding a supplier of bottles! So the ratafia has been aged for four years in barrels instead of two years and it was actually far better because this period enabled the alcohol to mix properly and we get fruitier and rounder liquor!”

What Future Plans Can Enthusiasts Of Champagne Piot-Sevillano Look Forward To In The Coming Years?

“Champagne Piot-Sévillano is a very dynamic winery and there are plenty of new projects coming in future years. For example, we have developed new wine tourism offers, more sustainable and linked directly to patrimony and slow tourism. We have developed an app where you have two different walks to choose from in the vineyard and we have designed some videos, texts and audio where I virtually guide visitors from plot to plot so that they can discover the hillsides the way I see them.

Another project was the ratafia and we finally put it on the market at the beginning of the year which was a great achievement after more than five years in project.

Regarding the vineyard, we have decided to plant some Pinot Blanc because we are going to enter a phase of 20 years of replantation because our vineyard is quite old. I have decided to plant for the first time in the history of the winery some Pinot Blanc on one plot because I love the aromatic profile of this grape variety and because they are more productive. Also, I have chosen a rootstock more resistant to drought because, due to global warming, this threat has now to be taken into account.

As far as labels are concerned we have renovated completely the range of Les Caractérielles, and we have decided to highlight the role of women in history. Iconic, strong and powerful women living in the collective mindset were chosen to represent our three 100%: Madame de Pompadour for the Impertinente, 100% Pinot Noir, La Goulue, a famous French Cancan dancer for the Provocante, 100% Meunier and most well-known French revolutionary woman, the Liberty guiding the People for the Rebelle, 100% Chardonnay. We have met a very talented local painter who paints on French roadmaps and it rang a bell because we are also working with reliefs and soils and it was meaningful for us to letter her work on the map of our vineyard and to highlight her artwork as a female artist.”

Can You Share With Us One Of The Most Memorable Experiences You’ve Enjoyed With A Glass of Bubbly?

“Too hard to choose !!! So many !”

Thank you Christine Sévillano, for sharing your story and experiences with us and we at Glass of Bubbly wish you the very best for the future!

Images belong to Champagne Piot-Sévillano. Glass of Bubbly was granted permission to use them.