Score: 93/100
This Champagne sparkling wine by Champagne Moutard is a brand-new single vineyard cuvée, part of the new Climats de Champagne range, and made from 100% Pinot Noir from plot called Les Perrières in Southern Côte des Bar area of the French Champagne region.
The vineyard was planted back in 1986 (30+ years old). The wine was vinified and aged in foudre (large oak vat).
The wine is aged and bottled under the more traditional steel stapple cork closure instead of beer cap for ageing and a cage.
To respect the genuine expression of this special fruit, the dosage (added sugar at bottling) is minimal, limited to 3 grams per litre, hence the ‘Brut Nature’ sweetness level as detailed on the label.
Tasting Notes
This Pinot Champagne comes in a bright and vibrant lemon-yellow color, filled with a wealth of gold hues making it look very shiny. There are hints of grey and slightly pink hues reminding us we are here with a Blanc de Noirs, made exclusively with red Pinot Noir grapes.
The nose is pungent and very fruity, very expressive for a Champagne wine.
Plenty of ripe and generous citrus notes jump out of the glass. Ripe and sweet grapefruit, touches of orange peel, and fresh lemon liqueur (limoncello-like) are the dominant notes.
They are combined with a powerful impression of cooked apples, somewhat like an apple crumble that would have been imbibed with orange juice, the buttery biscuit smell included.
Add some honey, slightly vegetal acacia leaf character bringing in a touch of mintiness, and delicate ginger and gingerbread spices, and you get a sense of a very fragrant, yet super elegant aromatic profile.
The palate delivers an explosive opulence both from pungent flavors and a rich texture.
Probably because it is a Blanc de Noirs Champagne, as opposed to a blend including Chardonnay, this Champagne is round-bodied and opulently oily, relative to the Champagne style. Yet, the crisp and lean acidity provides tension all along the tasting, and a constant sense of freshness.
Flavors explode in a firework of fruity apple, like biting in a super-aromatic fresh apple, with touches of fresh pineapple and passion fruit added, certainly some grapefruit juice too, coconut and mixed sweet spices.
The long and layered finish allows to enjoy all aromas and flavors mentioned above, one after the other for a long time, easily a minute or two, which is outstanding.
This is clearly a dry Champagne, but the rich fruity texture doesn’t make it feel particularly dry, but rather fruity. Some drying phenolics do bring an additional sense of savoriness to the finish, balancing a world of fruit and coconut oil very well.
Overall
A Champagne wine combining the generosity of opulent Pinot Noir grapes from a single vineyard in the Cotes des Bars, with the elegance and tension these old vines have extracted from their Champagne terroir.
The whole is richly-scented and big-heartedly textured, delivering a complex and layered, but more importantly long and impressive tasting experience.
Enjoy 🙂
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