Winemaker Notes
A beautiful golden-yellow hue. Flavors of nectar of elegance and complexity; light roasting and minerality. Elegant, complex, fresh and long on the palate. Buttery and brioche aromas, lightly toasted, with the fruitiness of apricot and a balanced velvety finish.
Serve chilled in a large glass for the aromas to develop. It is a great wine that reveals itself as the minutes go by. It can be perfectly appreciated as an aperitif, then on fish and shellfish.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
This single vineyard Champagne is fruity but also textured. A blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, this has a mineral touch to go with the dense acidity. This is a fine wine, worth aging further in the bottle.
-
Decanter
Elegant creamy apples, raspberry and brioche aromas. Palate with nice development and a deep chalky base, fresh lemon finish. Blend : 65% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay
-
James Suckling
A layered wine with a reductive style, showing red fruit and citrus. Medium-sized if not frothy bubbles with zesty acidity and a tight yet balanced finish. Light-bodied.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The latest release of the NV Extra-Brut Ouvrage was disgorged in May 2018 with four grams per liter dosage after five years on the lees, and it matured sur lattes under cork. Offering up aromas of citrus oil, fresh brioche and white flowers, it's medium to full-bodied, tensile and attractively layered, with good concentration, racy acids and a chalky finish. I suspect it will be interesting to follow with a little bottle age.
-
Wine Spectator
A modest Champagne, with a base note of smoke underscoring delicate notes of baked pear, marzipan, singed orange peel and lemon thyme set on a softly creamy palate. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Disgorged April 2021. Drink now.
A term typically reserved for Champagne and Sparkling Wines, non-vintage or simply “NV” on a label indicates a blend of finished wines from different vintages (years of harvest). To make non-vintage Champagne, typically the current year’s harvest (in other words, the current vintage) forms the base of the blend. Finished wines from previous years, called “vins de reserve” are blended in at approximately 10-50% of the total volume in order to achieve the flavor, complexity, body and acidity for the desired house style. A tiny proportion of Champagnes are made from a single vintage.
There are also some very large production still wines that may not claim one particular vintage. This would be at the discretion of the winemaker’s goals for character of the final wine.
Associated with luxury, celebration, and romance, the region, Champagne, is home to the world’s most prized sparkling wine. In order to bear the label, ‘Champagne’, a sparkling wine must originate from this northeastern region of France—called Champagne—and adhere to strict quality standards. Made up of the three towns Reims, Épernay, and Aÿ, it was here that the traditional method of sparkling wine production was both invented and perfected, birthing a winemaking technique as well as a flavor profile that is now emulated worldwide.
Well-drained, limestone and chalky soil defines much of the region, which lend a mineral component to its wines. Champagne’s cold, continental climate promotes ample acidity in its grapes but weather differences from year to year can create significant variation between vintages. While vintage Champagnes are produced in exceptional years, non-vintage cuvées are produced annually from a blend of several years in order to produce Champagnes that maintain a consistent house style.
With nearly negligible exceptions, . These can be blended together or bottled as individual varietal Champagnes, depending on the final style of wine desired. Chardonnay, the only white variety, contributes freshness, elegance, lively acidity and notes of citrus, orchard fruit and white flowers. Pinot Noir and its relative Pinot Meunier, provide the backbone to many blends, adding structure, body and supple red fruit flavors. Wines with a large proportion of Pinot Meunier will be ready to drink earlier, while Pinot Noir contributes to longevity. Whether it is white or rosé, most Champagne is made from a blend of red and white grapes—and uniquely, rosé is often produce by blending together red and white wine. A Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay will be labeled as ‘blanc de blancs,’ while ones comprised of only red grapes are called ‘blanc de noirs.’