Description

100% Grand Cru Chardonnay from Chouilly in the Cote de Blancs. It is ripe showing its Chardonnay base: peaches, mango, pears with mineral and hints of ginger. Lovely texture, long finishing and clearly outstanding in quality. Drink now or drink with 5-10 years in the cellar.

Established in 1920 at Damary and still family run to this day. Their 18 hectares span the Grand Cru terroirs of Chouilly in the Côte de Blancs and the Premier Cru terroir of Bisseuil, in the Montagne de Reims. Today, their reputations have been made with wines that are structured, delicate, precise, elegant, intimate.

Champagne – A wine region of France approximately 160km East of Paris. It is also the name of the wines produced from the area. Most famously it is a sparkling wine that undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle and is aged on lees. Although there is the occasional still wine you can find around particularly Pinot Noir. The fantastically named Bouzy Rouge is one such example. There are very few single vintage, single vineyard, single variety Champagnes (I can only name one and it was produced only 47 times between 1900 and 1999). Why? Due to the large area the region covers, and the challenging weather the houses blended wines to produce a consistent and reliable product every year. This is where the growers come in. They relish the chance to show off vintage variation and small plot wines.

Chardonnay – The grape that you can plant anywhere, in any climate and do anything to and it will still taste like an OK wine. When people hit the sweet spot of site, climate, cropping and winemaking, Chardonnay becomes a magical wine that will age gracefully but charm you at any age. Chardonnays can range from cool climate lean and citrusy to warmer climate tropical and overt. Oak and lees can add flavouring as can malolactic fermentation.