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This Magnificent Champagne by Tyson Stelzer
For a region that has spent centuries building its fame on blending three varieties across multiple vintages and numerous villages, the concept of single vineyard champagnes of one variety and vintage is both relatively recent and more than a little disconcerting.
The wildly temperamental climate in one of the most difficult regions to ripen grapes on the planet makes the art of blending the saviour of Champagne. There are very few sites capable of standing alone with any semblance of balance, let alone the credentials to match the infinite palette of blending opportunities presented by this complex and intricate region.
This makes it all the more remarkable that two single vineyard champagnes this year could not only equal the finest blends of the region but, incredibly, impossibly, exceed every one of them.
In the juncture where the Vallée de la Marne meets the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Blancs lies the little village of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, home of Billecart-Salmon. In the middle of the village on but a single hectare lies Le Clos Saint-Hilaire. This vineyard has no right to its profound echelon. It is but a premier cru but, more significantly, in soil (deeper and less chalky than, for instance, the Clos des Goisses vineyard at the other end of the village) and in aspect (due east, far from the sought-after, sun-catching, south-facing orientation) it has no claims to greatness. It is but a flat expanse beside the press house in the village. It must be that the genius of Billecart’s painstaking attention to every detail plays a dramatic part here. I could not name another wine at this level, of any variety, anywhere in the world, of which the same could be said.
When I stepped out of the press house directly into the single hectare Clos in July, I was amazed at such small bunches of pinot noir, and so few. Yielding at miniscule levels by Champagne standards, less than one bottle is made from each of these 1964 planted vines, producing at most 7500 individually numbered bottles, sometimes just 3500, which sell for around $800 in Australia. The 1998 vintage scoring 100/100 in my notes this year. This was the finest champagne I tasted this year for its persistence, complexity and structure.
Ten kilometres south, Clos du Mesnil is the most famous vineyard in all of Champagne. An inscription in the vineyard states that vines were planted here and the wall built in 1698. The clos occupies just 1.84 hectares in the heart of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, the finest and most age-worthy of Champagne’s chardonnay villages. On pure chalk soils, the east-facing slope achieves less ripeness than some of Le Mesnil’s due south facing slopes, making it all the more suited to the house of Krug’s long-ageing style.
“My father purchased the plot in 1971 so as to secure a supply of chardonnay at a time when many growers were starting to make their own wines,” Olivier Krug explained to me when I visited. “When they tasted all the still wines that year they realised that this little clos did not taste the same as the other wines from Le Mesnil. The same story repeated until the outstanding 1979 harvest, when my father suggested that they should make a single wine. My grandfather said, ‘Never! You will ruin the philosophy of Krug! This is only one grape and one year and one little garden!’ But my father made a test and they fell in love with the champagne.” Each bottle now sells for around $1950 in Australia.
Such is the personality, the complexity and the mesmerising persistence of 1998 Clos du Mesnil that it morphs, unravels and then reveals itself for minutes after you have swallowed. It was my only other perfect 100/100 in Champagne this year.
Billecart Clos Saint-Hilaire and Krug Clos du Mesnil, one pure pinot noir, the other pure chardonnay, both of the single 1998 vintage, epitomise the heights to which the finest sites of Champagne can rise in the most talented hands.
This Magnificent Life Magazine
http://www.thismagnificentlife.com is a bi-monthly magazine launched in 2009 at Luxury Interactive New York. The magazine is about the stories of luxury – the craftsmanship, heritage, history and integrity as well as the things that just make you feel magnificent. We feature the very best places, products and experiences worldwide.
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