Southern Champagne, Northern Soul
The Côte des Bar is Champagne's warm, sunny south, and André Fays has been making wine here since 1973. Located in Celles-sur-Ource, in the Aube department, the estate benefits from southern exposure and a microclimate that allows grapes to reach a generous, full ripeness that cooler northern sites rarely achieve. André founded the house, his son Jean-Louis continued it, and now granddaughter Marie represents the third generation, bringing fresh energy to a well-established family tradition.
It is a family story told through Pinot Noir, Meunier, Chardonnay, and one grape variety that sets André Fays apart from nearly every other champagne producer: Pinot Blanc. This rare variety is almost never used in champagne, but in Celles-sur-Ource it has a long local tradition, and André Fays champions it with conviction and skill.
The estate holds HVE (High Environmental Value) certification, reflecting a genuine commitment to sustainable viticulture that goes beyond compliance. Everything is estate-grown and estate-bottled, giving you a direct and unbroken connection between the sunny Ource Valley slopes and the wine in your glass. For those who want to explore the full breadth of champagne regions, the Côte des Bar through André Fays is a revelation.
Étincelles: A Champagne Like No Other
The headline cuvée is Étincelles, a 100% Pinot Blanc champagne that is genuinely unlike anything else in the region. Pinot Blanc gives a softer, rounder profile than Chardonnay, with notes of white flowers, ripe orchard fruit, and a gentle, almost silky texture that feels both generous and refined. It is a conversation starter in the best possible way: unexpected, delicious, and impossible to categorise neatly within the usual champagne framework.
Beyond Étincelles, the range covers all the bases with skill and personality. The Tradition Brut and Réserve Brut are textbook Côte des Bar: generous, vinous, and full of sun-kissed fruit. The Extra Brut Tradition strips back the dosage for a drier, more focused expression that lets the terroir shine. And the Rosé de Saignée, made by macerating the skins rather than blending, delivers a rosé with real colour, real flavour, and real presence on the table. The Infinity cuvée rounds out the collection with ambition, polish, and a sense of occasion. What unites the entire range is that warm, powerful southern character that the Aube does so well, married with the precision and elegance you expect from champagne at its best.
Why André Fays Is a Discovery Worth Making
We chose André Fays because this house represents something we believe in deeply: champagne from the road less travelled. The Côte des Bar is still underappreciated, often overlooked in favour of the Marne Valley or the Côte des Blancs, but the wines here have a warmth and generosity that those cooler northern sites simply cannot replicate.
André Fays captures that perfectly, and the Pinot Blanc cuvée is the kind of bottle that makes people rethink their assumptions about what champagne can be. Three generations of family dedication, sustainable farming, and a willingness to do something genuinely different with a rare grape variety: that is exactly the kind of producer story we love discovering and sharing.
If you enjoy wines that surprise you, and you are interested in styles like Blanc de Noirs from Pinot-dominant terroirs, André Fays belongs on your radar. These are bold, characterful champagnes with heart, and we are proud to pour them at The Champagne Fox. Every bottle is an invitation to discover a part of Champagne that most people have never tasted. Once you try the Étincelles Pinot Blanc, you will wonder why more producers do not work with this extraordinary grape.
