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Another EXPLOSIVE day of GC action from the BIG QUATRE (Pogi, MVDP, Joao, and Remco) and time for another /WORLD TOUR WINE/ !!
We are spending the Grand Depart in the Hauts-de-France and remain in Champagne for /WTW/. Yesterday's wine was an exemplary example of one of the great Maisons of Champagne, but today we are on a different tack with "grower" Champagne. The vast majority of grapes in Champagne are grown by family farmers and then sold to the large Maisons (Moet et Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Bollinger, Krug, etc) for vinification. In contrast, grower Champagnes are both grown and vinified by individual vignerons. These are often single vintage, sometimes even single vineyard. This is an expanding segment, but still makes up less than 5% of exported Champagne.
Jean Velut 'Premier Temps' Brut Champagne ($45)
The contrast between this and Krug couldn't be funnier. The label looks like it was printed at Kinkos. This is 100% Chardonnay, disgorged in 2024 after 3.5 years on the lees (in contrast, yesterday's Krug spent 7 years on the lees). Dosage is 7 g/l.
Free preview of extra wine nerd education (normally these notes require an OnlyBerts subscription): Champagne production is bizarrely complex. Initially, the grapes are vinified, blended, and then bottled. They are then kept nose down in the deep limestone cellars of Champagne, giving the bottles a bit of a turn every few days to the loosen the sediment and drive it slowly into the neck of the bottle underneath a metal cap. This process is called riddling. The sediment is essentially the yeast that has already done its job, turning sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide (bubbles), and then dying. The dead yeast collects at the neck, forming a plug referred to as the 'lees'. Champagne requires at least 15 months of maturation in the cellar before release (most wines undergo far longer maturation), and this prolonged exposure to yeast brings the bready/brioche/pastry notes so beloved in Champagne. Then, the metal caps are released, the dead yeast plug fires out like a bullet from the pressure of the CO2, and a light hit of sugar is added to the bottle (dosage) before corking. The added sugar cuts the searing acidity of Champagne, and the amount of sugar added from the dosage is reflected in the category, from Brut nature (0 dosage, less than 3 g/L final sugar) all the way to Doux (>50 g/L final sugar). Brut is probably most common category and is less than 12 g/L of sugar.
Returning to this wine:
The nose is bready, more crusty baguette than brioche, followed by yellow apple and marzipan. This has an oxidative quality that I enjoy in many Champagnes -- it brings nuttiness and complexity to an otherwise very austere profile. The palate is zippy, with tongue-tingling acidity, bruised yellow apple, minimal citrus, and lingering almond finish.
This is really good stuff, moderate complexity. Not profound like the Krug, but finer than the Anima Mundi Cami dels Xops from Volta a Catalunya which was made with Methode Ancestrale (please refer to previous editions of /wtw/ for more information).