Esterlin champagne tasting: visits & booking

History

The Fransoret, Dehu and Cadestin families brought twenty-nine members and twenty-three hectares together to found the Esterlin cooperative in February 1948. Mancy was its base. The cooperative later extended into the Sézannais and towards La Chapelle-Monthodon in the Marne Valley, connecting growers from more than one Champagne landscape.

Esterlin’s Épernay address is 25 avenue de Champagne. The house describes its villa through a reference to Palladio’s architecture in the Veneto. This reception property is separate from the production and storage facilities at Mancy, which occupy 10,000 square metres and include 15,000 hectolitres of tank capacity. Other pressing sites serve its wider grower network.

Esterlin dates its solera reserve system to 1972. Successive harvests supplied older wine for later blends, including the Éclat and Ex-Soléra releases. The current Ex-Soléra sheet identifies a 2013 base with forty percent reserve wine, bottled in July 2014 and disgorged in June 2023. These dated production records show how the reserve and bottle maturation intersect.

The house generally avoids malolactic fermentation. Its Cléo Blanc de Blancs 2012 combines Chardonnay with partial vinification in used Burgundy barrels of 228 litres and muids of 350 litres. The published release was disgorged in March 2024. Brut Éclat’s separate release record gives July 2020 bottling and April 2025 disgorgement.

The house’s account gives 400 members and 211 hectares as the position at its seventieth anniversary. That is a dated milestone in its cooperative growth. The founding families, the 1972 reserve and the Mancy production site are distinct parts of Esterlin’s history behind its Avenue tasting address.

The production site is in Mancy

Esterlin’s production and storage site is at Mancy, separate from its Avenue headquarters. The official production account describes 10,000 square metres of premises, 15,000 hectolitres of tank storage and a naturally steady cellar temperature of about 11°C. Two additional pressing sites serve the Sézannais and Marne Valley. The house’s French and English pages give different bottle-stock totals, so neither total is used here.

Esterlin ferments at a controlled 16°C and usually avoids malolactic fermentation. Its Cléo Blanc de Blancs uses Burgundy barrels of 228 litres and larger 350-litre muids. These are production details, not an advertised route through the Mancy winery: the official Épernay listing identifies the public Avenue venue as a tasting and shop address.

The house’s longer maturation

Esterlin’s house account gives indicative maturation periods of five years for Brut Éclat, six years for Blanc de Blancs Éclat and ten years for its Identity wines and vintages. These are the producer’s range descriptions. Individual release sheets give the more precise bottling and disgorgement dates, including the December 2024 disgorgement of the listed Blanc de Blancs Éclat. The “Éclat” range name and a vintage year therefore describe different parts of the catalogue.

Brut Éclat: the blend and the reserve

Brut Éclat’s published blend is 60% Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir. The current technical page describes a 2019 base, with 70% wine from that harvest and 30% reserve wine. Esterlin began the reserve system in 1972, adding wine from successive years; this reserve is used to introduce older components into the non-vintage blend.

The listed Brut Éclat was bottled in July 2020 and disgorged in April 2025, with dosage of 7 g/L. Those dates describe the release on the technical page, not every bottle carrying the Éclat name. Esterlin recommends this cuvée with roast chicken, fish or as an aperitif, which provides a concrete comparison with the house’s lower-dosage Ex-Soléra.

Blanc de Blancs Éclat

Blanc de Blancs Éclat is entirely Chardonnay. Its technical sheet lists a 2016 base, January 2017 bottling, December 2024 disgorgement and 7 g/L dosage. Malolactic fermentation is omitted here too. The named origins include the Coteaux Sud d’Épernay, Mancy Valley, Sézanne slopes and Condé-en-Brie area; the grape name alone does not make this a single-village wine. The house suggests seafood platters and cooked fish with this cuvée.

Ex-Soléra and Pur Meunier

Ex-Soléra uses the same grape proportions as Brut Éclat, but its published release combines 60% wine from 2013 with 40% solera reserves. Bottling is dated July 2014 and disgorgement June 2023. Its dosage is 4.5 g/L. The comparison is therefore about reserve composition, maturation and finishing sugar as well as the words on the front label.

Pur Meunier is the single-variety alternative: 100% Meunier, without malolactic fermentation, at 3.5 g/L dosage. The posted release has a 2019 base, was bottled in July 2020 and disgorged in 2025. Esterlin’s food suggestions include poule au pot and dishes with a white sauce. A tasting that includes it would compare a single grape with the three-grape Éclat blend; the actual wines poured depend on the tasting booked.

Cléo Blanc de Blancs 2012

Cléo is 100% Chardonnay from the 2012 harvest. Half the wine is vinified in previously used 228-litre Burgundy barrels and 350-litre muids; the page specifies no new oak and no malolactic fermentation. The published dosage is 8 g/L and disgorgement March 2024. The technical page’s bottling field appears inconsistent with the harvest year, so that field is not repeated. Esterlin names roasted turbot, scallops and razor clams among its pairings.

Visiting number 25

The tourist office’s 2026 listing gives Monday–Friday 09:00–12:00 and 14:00–17:00, with Saturday and Sunday closed. English and German are listed, along with the terrace, wine-and-food pairings, takeaway sales and Wi-Fi. Those are the published Avenue reception details; no all-year seven-day opening or public Mancy cellar tour is assumed.

Telephone Esterlin on +33 3 26 59 71 52 for the tasting format and a quotation. A current named tasting tariff and duration could not be established from the house’s own pages or its tourist-office listing. The Épernay Avenue walk places number 25 among the street’s visitable houses, while Leclerc Briant explains why neighbouring Le 25bis is a separate boutique and guest-house address.

Access and facilities

Esterlin is the Avenue de Champagne’s cooperative address: 25 avenue de Champagne, in a villa inspired by Palladio’s Veneto architecture. Its growers established the cooperative at Mancy in February 1948; the Avenue venue now provides a terrace, tastings and bottle sales.

Request access details from Esterlin

Official booking and sources

Open the house’s visitor page for the named venue. Visitor information and quoted tariffs reviewed 23 October 2026.

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