THE STORY
Doing it Right before it was fashionable
The Guiborat family planted their first vines on the chalk slopes of Cramant in 1885. For four generations they farmed these vineyards meticulously, selling their fruit to the region’s Grandes Marques. The fifth generation made many changes and it did so because of a promise.
Richard Fouquet grew up in Sarcelles, in the northern suburbs of Paris. His roots lay in Cramant: the vineyards and the Guiborat name came through his mother’s side of the family. Though his childhood was urban and his exposure to wine modest, he spent every holiday in the countryside, whether at Cramant or with his paternal grandparents in central France. When his maternal grandfather died in 1953 aged 41, Richard’s grandmother Paulette, aged 33, stepped into the breach, running the estate with formidable energy and determination. The cellar, still in use today, was dug entirely by hand: work began in 1905 and was completed during her tenure in the 1970s. As a child, Richard made her a promise: he would come back to Cramant and make Champagne. He meant it. Although he hesitates to call it a vocation, “ce n’était pas un rêve, c’était comme ça, une évidence” – it wasn’t a dream, just an obvious decision.
In 1993, aged just eighteen, he made good on his promise and returned to the region to study at Avize and Reims. He joined his grandmother on the estate in 1995 and made his first solo vintage in 1996, at the age of 21, a tiny production of about 6,000 bottles. In a radical act for the time, he decided to ring-fence the family’s best holdings – 3.5 hectares of carefully selected Grand Cru vineyards – to make his own wines and establish what has become one of the most compelling grower estates in Champagne today. The estate covers eight hectares in total, and fruit from the remaining holdings continues to be sold to Grandes Marques like Laurent-Perrier.
The years that followed were a slow, deliberate education. “La personne avant moi qui aidait ma grand-mère m’a appris ce qu’il ne fallait pas faire,” Richard says of those early years – the man who came before him at his grandmother’s side had taught him, mostly, what not to do. From the year 2000, he set about modernising the cellar with surgical intent: stainless steel tanks sized to individual parcels, a new press, and the ability to vinify each plot separately. The aim was always the same: to understand his terroir parcel by parcel. A few years later came the malolactic question. After trialling Mont-Aigu both ways from 2004, by 2006 he had committed: a blend of Caurés and Mont-Aigu, vinified without malolactic fermentation. He has held to that approach ever since, and was one of the first in the region to do so.
Karine Fouquet, an oenologist by training, came into Richard’s life in 2007. She had finished her studies in 1993, in the depths of a Champagne crisis, and had worked at the CIVC, helped set up business degree courses at the lycée in Avize, and spent time at Laurent-Perrier before they met. She still laughs about the early days. Richard didn’t pour her his Champagnes straight away, which she counts as a small mercy: “Je t’avoue que j’avais une vraie crainte de ne pas aimer ses vins. Si c’était le cas, comment lui dire?” she remembers, half-smiling. “Mais coup de bol, il vinifiait déjà très bien.” A stroke of luck indeed: he was already making very good wine. She began helping at the domaine almost immediately. Their son Gatien was born in 2009. Karine joined full-time in 2012 after a few years balancing the domaine and her office job, and they have worked together since.
The first real moment of outside recognition came in 2011, when Michel Bettane (from the eponymous French wine guide Bettane+Desseauve) called to ask if he could come and taste. Richard rang Karine in a mild panic; she came to help. Bettane fell for the wines, the domaine entered the guide, and from the following year onwards export markets began to open up.
2012 brought a harder test. Mildew pressure threatened the harvest and Richard, anxious not to manipulate the wines, sold the entire crop to the négoce rather than risk an off note in the bottle. It was an année blanche – a blank year, no wine bottled under the family name – that clipped their wings just as momentum was building, but it gave them time to think. They retired the Cuvée Tradition (a blend of Chardonnay and their Pinot Meunier from Mardeuil) that had been a fixture since 1996 and committed fully to grands blancs, with all the red fruit sold off. It would return, but only on Richard’s own terms. In March 2016, a tasting of old vintages from Collard and a flight of remarkable Meuniers from the 1980s stuck with him: he realised he had never properly understood his own Mardeuil Meunier as a single-variety wine. The fruit that would become Prohibition was harvested that autumn, the first 100% Pinot Meunier cuvée of the house.
BETTANE+DESSEAUVE
Bettane himself captured the spirit of the Domaine’s story with characteristic precision.
“This child of Sarcelles who only came back to Cramant to keep a promise made to his delightful grandmother is a discreet man who compensates for his shyness by dreaming before doing, like all the great silent ones. Communication is the business of his wife, Karine, an oenologist, equally passionate but ideally complementary.”
Richard is reflective and intensely private; the wines are where his thinking comes through most clearly. Karine, warm and articulate, brings the conversation the energy and the oenological rigour. They work as a pair, each picking up where the other leaves off.
Paulette lived on the Domaine until her death in 2017. By all accounts she remained luminously curious to the end, asking questions, following everything, and visibly delighted by the arrival of Gatien in 2009. She lived to see Richard make good on his promise, and to see the estate she had held together for four decades reach a place she could be proud of.
This is a family project. A child’s promise to his grandmother, kept across three decades, and now made with Karine, his partner in life and in the cellar.
Key Dates in Champagne Guiborat’s History
1885
The Bon family, Richard’s mother’s side, arrives in Cramant from Limoges and acquires the first vineyards. The fruit will be sold to the Grandes Marques for the next century.
1953
Lucien Guiborat, Richard’s grandfather, passes away. Paulette Guiborat (née Bon) takes over and becomes the driving force of the estate.
1995
Richard Fouquet joins his grandmother on the estate full-time, honouring the promise he had made to her as a child.
1996
The first vintage produced entirely under Richard’s direction, using the best 3.5 hectares of the estate. The family continues to sell the fruit from the remaining holdings to Grandes Marques like Laurent-Perrier.
2000
Modernisation of the cellar with stainless steel tanks sized to individual parcels and a new press, allowing each plot to be vinified separately for the first time.
2006
After two years of trials, Richard commits to vinifying Caurés and Mont-Aigu together without malolactic fermentation.
2007
Karine enters Richard’s life and begins helping at the domaine.
2009
Their son Gatien is born.
2011
Michel Bettane visits, and is captivated. The domaine enters Bettane+Desseauve and export markets begin to open up.
2012
Karine joins the domaine full-time. The same year, mildew pressure leads Richard to sell the entire harvest to the négoce, an année blanche. The Cuvée Tradition is retired and the family commits fully to grands blancs.
2016
The cuvées are formally named (Téthys, Prisme, Millésime). A 1980s Pinot Meunier tasting is a revelation and Richard decides to create Prohibition, his first 100% Pinot Meunier cuvée.
2020
Prisme is vintage-dated for the first time. Prohibition reaches the market, four years after its first harvest.
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