Winemaker Notes
This is quite long and slippery for such a dry wine. It has a lot of class, salty, articulate terroir. The low notes should arrive when the disgorgement jaggedness recedes.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The July 2017 disgorgement of the NV Extra-Brut Cuvée Jean Fannière Origine is still on the market, and it's now beginning to take on some mature overtones, mingling notions of dried fruit, honeycomb and warm biscuits with aromas of peach and citrus. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and elegantly textural, with a delicate pinpoint mousse, lively acids and a saline finish, it's drinking well today.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The NV Champagne Cuvée de Jean Fannière Origine Extra Brut is floral and pretty, with notes of fresh baked croissant, green apple, pear, and lime blossom. The palate seems to have more tension and feels more dry, with green apple skin, stony and chalky earth, and white flowers. It is still assertive in its style, but I think it has more refinement and finesse. Drink over the next 15 or so years.
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Wine Spectator
A mouthwatering Champagne with a creamy bead, and savory hints of fleur de sel and toasted malt underscoring the dried apricot, pickled ginger and lemon pith notes.
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.’