Winemaker Notes
Rich amber gold with fine and persistent bubbles.? Mineral aromas with intense notes of pear, peach, blackcurrant, citrus touch and Asian spices.? Ripe fruit flavors including pear, Mirabelle plum, mango, profound minerality, long and fresh finish, spices notes and exotic fruits.?
Blend: 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier, 20% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is very vinous with dried-strawberry, mineral and stone undertones. Some white pepper, too. Full-bodied with a creamy texture. So fine. Flavorful finish. Intense. Needs food. From biodynamically grown grapes. A blend of 50% pinot nor, 30% pinot meunier and 20% chardonnay. Demeter certified.
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The Somm Journal
Salinity streaks through this upright, in fact stately, blend of 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier, and 20% Chardonnay from an organically and biodynamically farmed estate vineyard spanning the villages of Verneuil and Vandières—all the way from the nose of sourdough toast, yellow and dried apple, Asian pear, and savory spice (including white pepper) to the palate, whose sinuous texture wraps around a backbone of snappy acidity. Apricot and yellow plum temper its mineral edge en route to a long, graceful finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From the 2018 vintage with 10% reserve wine, and pouring a bright silver-yellow hue, the NV Champagne Le Green Bio-Organic Extra Brut offers more focused and citrus-driven aromatics of lemon-lime zest, saline, and white flowers. This continues to the palate with a linear feel and retains significant freshness, with floral notes of fresh bread dough coming through on the finish. It has a chalky texture, a lively, focused mousse, and a lasting drive of tension. It will improve with another couple of years in the cellar.
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Wine Enthusiast
A blend of the three Champagne varieties and aged four years in bottle, this Champagne has an aroma with almonds and spice. The wine is rich with maturity and ripe apple flavors.
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Wine & Spirits
In 2010, Lanson purchased 32 acres in Verneuil from Leclerc Briant, which had farmed the parcels under biodynamics since 2002. Lanson has since added ten acres in Verneuil to the property they call Domaine de la Malmaison. The vineyards are organically certified, providing the fruit for Lanson’s new Green Label. This first release is rich and direct, presenting its clean red-cherry flavors with a perfumed, floral lemon note to the acidity. A touch of smoky lees adds toastiness to the finish—a classical aperitif Champagne with an organic pedigree.
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Wine Spectator
Otherwise firm and fresh, this Champagne is enriched by hints of marzipan and vanilla-infused pastry cream, with ripe apple and pear, lemon pith, chalk and smoke notes set on a vivacious bead. Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. Disgorged January 2022. Drink now. 500 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The latest rendition of Lanson's NV Brut Green Label evokes a fresh, lively bouquet of mint, red berries, pear and lemon oil. Moderately weighted, fresh and delicate, it's long and tense with a mouthwatering, incisive finish. This is a blend of 46% Pinot Noir, 36% Chardonnay and 18% Pinot Meunier, based entirely on the 2018 vintage, and it was disgorged with six grams per liter dosage.
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.’