champagne

2017  Blanc de Blancs

Blanc de Blancs ---- "From a rich but small harvest with great fruit maturity, the 2017 Minéral Extra Brut Grand Cru comes from three different parcels in Avize that each express a different dimension of the same village terroir. Half of the cuvée is vinified in stainless and the other half in oak barrel, aged on fine lees until disgorged 60 days before release with a three gram per liter dosage. It unfurls with incredibly rich, perfumed and expressive ripe yellow apple, lemon confit, wet stones, and honey all fused with a delicate oxidative note. Medium-bodied, the palate is structured around a pinpoint fruit core that is surrounded by chalky minerality and assertive acidity radiating freshness. It has a gorgeous long, lively and lithe finish. Drink: 2023-2038." - 95+ points, TWI 

NV  

100% Pinot Noir. Hand harvested per appellation requirements from the villages of Les Riceys, Channes and Buxeuil. Fermented and stored in enameled steel tanks. Three years aging sur latte. ---- Our favorite recent bubbly find, this is a remarkable 100% Pinot Noir wine that drinks with a beautiful citric brightness, making it a particularly excellent aperitif bottle. "Pale straw color with a copper hue and young vivid mousseux. The nose displays ripe pear, peach and some red berry notes with a hint of fresh butter. Bone dry palate, a crisp acidity underneath, rather mellow creaminess, ripe fruit with an emphasis on darker Pinot flavors with a good grip and a long lingering finish." - 91 points, Andreas Larsson 

2002  

The 2002 Cristal is now entering its first plateau of maturity, which makes it a terrific Champagne for drinking now. Hints of apricot, brioche, lemon confit, honey, hazelnut, baked apple tart and spice give the 2002 striking layers of nuance. Rich and generous, the 2002 show plenty of the natural opulence of the year and yet retains terrific freshness as well. As always, Cristal is a blend of Pinot from Ay, Verzenay, Verzy and Beaumont sur Vesle, and Chardonnay from Mesnil, Cramant and Oger. Dosage is 9 grams per liter. - 97pts Vinous

NV  

NV  

NV  Extra Brut

50-70 year old vine, 74% Pinot Meunier, 16% Pinot Noir, 10% Chardonnay, 3 g/l, Biodynamic. ---- "The Tolérance offers a clear and concentrated yet very delicate bouquet of red fruits. On the palate, this rosé reveals great purity, finesse and elegance, with a firm but fine structure and highly delicate but persistent fruit. This is a great rosé Champagne! Highly recommended." - 94pts WA

2014  Blanc de Blancs (Brigitte Fallon)

Michel Fallon Brigitte Fallon Avysia Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne ---- Ultra-Rare Champagne: Only 2,300 Bottles Made Of A New Cult Collectable -- Made by Brigitte Fallon wife of Michel Fallon, ex-cellar master for Jacques Selosse -- The Avysia is a Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs from the famed cru of Avize. It is based around the 2019 vintage and includes reserve wines going back to 2014. The dosage is low, while the wine echoes the Selosse and Michel Fallon style, being powerful and complex with oxidative notes to balance the purity of the Chardonnay fruit.

2022  

Brut Nature ---- "The brand new release of Vincent Laval’s Cumières non-vintage bottling is from the 2022 vintage. It has been released here in the US one year earlier than customary, as Vincent simply did not produce this cuvée in the challenging year of 2021. So the 2022 Base Year version has arrived here in the states with twelve months less aging sur lattes than is customary, though there will be a second tranche of the same wine released next fall with its usual time aging on the fine lees prior to disgorgement. The newly arrived release was disgorged on the last day of August of 2024. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a mix of nectarine, passion fruit, brioche, chalky soil tones and a gently musky floral topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still quite brisk structurally, with a lovely core of fruit, good soil undertow, elegant mousse and a long, nascently complex, well balanced and zesty finish." - 93 Points, John Gilman

NV  Extra Brut Grand Cru

Extra Brut Grand Cru ---- 70% Chardonnay from Le Mesnil sur Oger and 30% Pinot Noir from Ambonnay, including 3% still Pinot Noir which gives the wine its delicate salmon hue. ---- "A fine, lacy mousse enfolds the chalky underpinning and firm acidity of this harmonious rosé in a creamy swathe of texture, carrying a finely detailed range of ripe white cherry and strawberry fruit, toast point and chopped almond flavors. Hints of pink grapefruit zest and pickled ginger show on the crisp finish. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir." - 92 points, Wine Spectator

NV  

"When Cyril Brun was briefed to recreate this iconic cuvée, he struggled to achieve the plenitude and drama he was looking for. Then, he dug in the Heidsieck archives and discovered, as he tells it, that the famous vintages of Charlie, while vintaged on paper, actually contained reserve wines. Brun therefore gave himself carte blanche to draw on the house's best lots to put together the inaugural NV Champagne Charlie, based on the 2016 vintage but incorporating fully 78% reserve wines dating back two decades. Bursting with aromas of golden orchard fruit, brioche, honeycomb, peaches, spices and buttery pastry, it's full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with a layered core of fruit, racy acids and a beautifully refined pinpoint mousse. Some 52% of the blend is Chardonnay, with Brun looking for ripe, exotic Chardonnay to complement more tensile lots of Pinot Noir. It's a compelling, flamboyant wine—the only thing that may make consumers smart is the price." - 96pts WA

NV  'Leonard'

Rosé Grand Cru 'Cuvée Léonard' Vines planted to pure chalk soils. 19% of the blend is Pinot Noir vinified as a still red wine. 50% is blanc de Noir from Pinot Noir and 50% is Chardonnay. This large percentage of still red wine results in a very vinous and powerful Rose. 70% of harvest 2020 and 30% reserve wines of a solera begun in 1968. Vinified nine months sur lies Aged 3 years sur lattes. Dosage 7g/l. Current release disgorged June 2023

2009  Avize Grand Cru

"Complex aromas of flowers and citrus fruits; crystal-clear base, as dense as it is transparent, crystalline structure, taut like a bow, eternally long, with fresh notes of green pomelo; great wine, by far the best version of this vineyard cuvée!" - 20/20 points, Vinum Wine