Bryan Marx is a young winemaker at the helm of his family winery in Venteuil. Five years ago his father retired and he and his mother bought a house in the south of France. While they occasionally return to assist in the winery, Bryan has assumed full control of the family business. Beginning with the 2019 harvest Bryan carved out 1.5ha from five of his favorite plots to begin a new project, Domaine des Tuileries. The winery is named after the place he and his grandfather used to picnic on warm summer days, underneath an old Acacia tree. 

 

These wines made their international debut in 2022 at the Epicurewine tasting in Reims during Champagne Week. At the time they did not have a name or a label. They hadn’t even been disgorged, Bryan was preparing each bottle for the tasting à la volée. He is the president of the Epicurewine group and has amassed a group of some of the most exciting new producers in the region. Their goal was to create a group so they could showcase their wines to the world, but, ‘most of all we are just friends.’ 

 

It is common in Champagne these days for a project to be wildly hyped before they even hit the market, and more often than not these projects fizzle out or don’t live up to expectation. We have watched, and tasted, these wines from unlabeled to now a fully formed brand that is out in the world. The wines exceed expectation and have garnered high praise from people who follow the champagne world closely. 

 

While this project is new, forward thinking and wildly exciting; Bryan has not forgotten his roots, his family and the lessons they taught him. Pushing forward in to the frontiers of Champagne also require not only a reverence to the past, but a strong foothold in it.