Winemaker Notes
The affinity for Chardonnay on chalky soils is not unique to Champagne but anywhere this soil can be found. After years of tasting the component blends for the sparkling wines at Louis de Grenelle, we’ve always been taken with their Chardonnay. Originating exclusively from the chalky, clay-limestone soils near the village of Montreuil-Bellay, this Blanc de Blancs is aged for two years sur latte and bottled with a very small dosage of 3 g/L.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The NV Chardonnay Brut Blanc de Blancs Bellay is from Montreuil-Bellay’s marly limestone terroir and has been kept on the second lees for more than four years. The bouquet is deep, rich and complex as well as fresh and reveals yeasty-scented tropical notes. Supple and round on the palate, this is an intense but delicate and elegant sparkling wine that is full-bodied and with moderate 12% alcohol. It has a great mouthfeel with a mineral structure that makes this an excellent gastronomic sparkling wine with a very good and textural finish with fine salinity.
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.
Marked by great châteaux built with the same tuffeau limestone that is also responsible for the excavation of so many of the famed Loire caves, Saumur is famous for its Chenin blanc based sparkling wines. Inside the Saumur region, Saumur-Champigny creates some of the Loire’s greatest Cabernet Francs.