2018 Vignon & Fils Champagne Réserve Marquises Grand Cru Extra Brut

Last year we introduced you to Stéphane Vignon of Champagne Vignon Pere & Fils.  It was our top selling Grower Champagne and we received an avalanche of wonderful feedback about how much you enjoyed the wine.  

I spent a good part of the morning this past year with Stéphane tasting a number of things currently available but also the 2018 marquis that was still aging sur latte. He explained that his wine was still a year or so away from being ready to release but wondered if I wanted to try a bottle and see how it was coming along.  Who am I to say no? I love the art of disgorging the bottles by hand - as he put it between his knees and arched up and in one smooth motion popped the capsule and blew out the sediment. Voila! He poured the bottle and reminded me that there was still a years worth of aging and it would be finished with a small amount of dosage (he always bottles his cuvee in the Extra Brut style - it ended up being 3.5grams).

What struck me with this cuvee is its freshness and purity. As a non dosage wine, the cuvee, of 65% Pinot Noir and 35% Chardonnay is really allowed to shine. The berry fruit and richness from the pinot noir is well balanced with the structure and acidity of the Chardonnay. Grapes are sourced from the domaine’s 6 hectares of vines located in the Grand Cru village of Verzanay and Verzy.   

My question for Stéphane was about the vintage. 2018 was an incredibly dry, warm year and had one of the earliest harvest ever. Ripeness typically wouldn’t be an issue in a year like this, instead the challenge would be preserving freshness, which this wine has in spades. Stéphane explained that historically in Montagne de Reims, the great sites in Champagne for Pinot Noir had been south facing vineyards of Ay, Bouzy and Ambonnay, but now with a warmer climate, Stéphane’s north facing of sites of Verzy and Verzany are preferred. It's impossible to disagree with what is in the bottle.  

You can pay a whole lot more for a fancy box, or a more commercialized name, but if beautifully balanced and harmonious Champagne at a fair price is something you value, you’re going to want to grab some of these