Chartogne Taillet, 'Les Barres' Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut 2020
France / Sparkling

Chartogne Taillet, 'Les Barres' Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut 2020

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$135.00
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Fruit

Earth

Acid

Body

Minerality

Notes from Grand Cru Selections:

100% Pinot Meunier. From three parcels over 4.77 ha including Pinot Meunier planted in 1970, Pinot Noir planted in 1987 and Chardonnay planted in 2000 with a south/southeast vine exposure. 

There are few producers in all of Champagne who could make a better case for terroir-driven wines than Alexandre Chartogne. A visit with him at his family estate offers a deep dive into both the largely overlooked history and geological diversity of his hometown of Merfy, just a fifteen-minute drive from Reims in the Massif de Saint-Thierry, where his family has tended vines for centuries. 

Since taking over his family's estate in 2006, Alexandre is constantly evolving, observing and questioning how to best express his individual parcels. Convinced that it is indeed the soils and subsoils, alive and preserved, which forge the identity of wine, in Champagne as much as in neighboring Burgundy, he has dug deep into historical maps and documents from his family archive, spent countless hours carefully analyzing soils of each plot to better guide his work and has never been afraid of experimentation in his cellar. 

Country
France
Sub-Region
Montagne de Reims
Region
Champagne
Varieties
Pinot Meunier
Farming
Organic
Soil
Chalk, clay and sandstone
Winemaking
Aged in 228L barrels with an elevated oxygen exchange. This promotes the wine's mineralisation, which slowly makes the varietal aromas disappear in favour of saltiness (the stable fraction of the wine). No topping-up is done from fermentation until March (approximately), in order to promote this mineralisation. Under its veil, the wine protects itself from the oxygen, thus revealing the salty charm of the chalky soils. Bottled as Extra Brut with a dosage of 3g/L. Digorged 02/25.