Winemaker Notes
Blend: 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a bright medium yellow color, the NV Champagne Premier Cru Vieilles Vignes Mes Favorites Brut is crafted primarily from the 2021 vintage, with 25% from 2020, 25% from 2019, and 15% from 2018. A blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay, it opens expressively with layered aromas of custard, preserved citrus, quince, white strawberries, pastry cream, and shortcake. Sourced exclusively from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ across old vine lieu-dits, it offers a supple, rounded, silky richness with a full-bodied yet elegant frame and is beautifully detailed and long on the palate. Featuring a pillowy, creamy mousse with exceptional clarity, I love the precision and detail of this wine.
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Decanter
Old vines and low yields seem to give an impression of age and depth in this wine, even if there are no old reserves and no oak here. Full of dried pear, ginger and sweet grapefruit peel, complex with spiced apple tart and brown bread toast, this is saturated with flavour and detail but not at all heavy; superb value. 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay from old vines in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in the Vallée de la Marne. 50% each from the 2019 and 2018 vintages.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Crafted from old vines of massal selection planting on a south-facing site in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, the NV Brut Premier Cru Mes Favorites Vieilles Vignes offers up an elegant, complex bouquet of white peach, pear, herbs, lemon oil, pastry and tangerine. Fleshier and deeper than its siblings, it's medium to full-bodied, vinous and charming and has a delicate, vinous core of fruit that leads to a long, saline and slightly anise-inflected finish. This blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay (based on the 2019 and 2020 vintages in equal parts) was disgorged with a dosage of 5.5 grams per liter.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and creamy, this finely knit Champagne integrates a lithe spine of vivid acidity and a salty, minerally underpinning. Offers flavors of crushed black cherry, blackberry, blood orange sorbet and grilled macadamia nut. Elegant. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
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Vinous
The NV Brut Mes Favorites Villes Vignes is a powerful, structured Champagne. There's plenty of old-vine intensity and bright acid driving a core of Pinot-based fruit. I would prefer to cellar this for at least another year or two, as it is clearly still coming together. It's a wine for readers who enjoy rich, vinous Champagnes at the dinner table. Disgorged: April 27, 2021.
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.’