Olivier Langlais

Where It Started The beginning of Langlais’s work is familial rather than institutional. His formation runs through generations of Champagne growers, a lineage in which the vineyard is not an abstract workplace but the handed-down center of attention. In 2006, that inheritance became his responsibility when he and Catherine Langlais took over the family vineyard. The date is pivotal, marking the passage from background to stewardship: a grower’s line becoming an owner’s work, with the family estate no longer only a place received but a place to be shaped. By 2009, after that takeover, he had created the Solemme brand. The move did not sever the estate from its past; it gave the inherited vineyard a distinct identity under his care, one rooted in the Champagne grower tradition from which he came.

Who Shaped Them The shaping force in Langlais’s story is the family line of growers behind him. Influence here is less a single apprenticeship than a chain of practice: vineyard knowledge passed through family, then gathered into the choices he made after 2006. Catherine Langlais belongs to the decisive chapter of that transfer. Together, they took over the family vineyard, making her part of the moment when inherited land became the foundation for the brand he would create in 2009. His philosophy follows the same plainspoken path. He advocates simplicity and honesty in his wines, a position that treats the bottle as something to clarify rather than decorate. Even when speaking about varieties and age, his language stays direct: "Chardonnay tends to open later, but old Meunier remains very fresh and lively."

The Work Today

Langlais’s work today is carried through the owner role he holds at the estate in Villers-Aux-Noeuds, with the brand he created after taking over the family vineyard. Its chronology is concise and legible: family grower origins, the 2006 handover with Catherine Langlais, the 2009 creation of the brand, and a continued philosophy of simplicity and honesty in the wines. A further marker arrived in 2018, when the estate became certified organic. That certification now sits within the same lineage as the rest of his work: not a break from the family vineyard, but another way of defining how it is farmed and how its wines are presented. For a Champagne grower, continuity can be an active verb. Langlais’s path is built from what he received, what he took on with Catherine, and the brand he introduced in 2009—a family estate translated into a living brand without losing the grower line behind it.