LARMANDIER-BERNIER
2016 Terre de Vertus Blanc de Blancs Non Dosé 1er Cru
| Grapes | Chardonnay |
| Colour | White |
| Origin | France, Champagne |
| Other | Bio-dynamic, Certified Organic |
| Village | Vertus |
| Classification | 1er Cru |
| ABV | 12.5% |
Certified organic and biodynamic. Spontaneous fermentation.
Creamy, tangy, coddled-yogurt richness. Dense and weighty, with layers and layers of richness: brûléed cream and cobnuts, honey and baked feta in pastry. Fascinating sprinkle of dried oregano grace notes. A kaleidoscope of flavour and texture tucked within a very firm, square frame. Linear, smoky end. Serious and magnificent. Drinking range: 2024 - 2035 Rating: 17.5 Tamlyn Currin - www.JancisRobinson.com (May 2024)
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*Case price discount: Mix any 12 bottles of wine (or 9 litre equivalent) or 6 bottles of Champagne, Spirits, Sweet Wine or Fortified (4.5 litres) to get the discounted 'case price' for each bottle.
100% Chardonnay from a plot named Les Barillers, situated mid slope in Vertus, which has been vinified separately since 1995. Fermented spontaneously in old wooden vats and casks, natural malo, aged on lees the following year without fining or filtration. Aged sur lattes for more than five years. Disgorged by hand a year before release. Dosage 0 g/l.
Like a broad arrow, burnished, powerful, driving smoke and cracked caramel from beginning to end with tremendous purpose. Roasted oatmeal. So much density it’s almost more of a meal than a drink. Warm, gingery spices. Salt and sour butter and bitter orange peel. A wine that challenges you, broad-chested heart to rib-caged heart. A wine with rhythm, beat, purpose. All-encompassing. Drinking range: 2023 - 2032 Rating: 17.5 Tamlyn Currin - www.JancisRobinson.com (Jun 2023)
Single-vineyard Les Barillers, on delicate, saline terroir in the mid-slope of Vertus; wild fermented in small Stockinger oak barrels and foudres, with increasingly more puncheons than in the past; aged at least 5 years on lees; zero dosage as always
2016 was complicated! It was wet at the beginning of the season, with disease pressure, but at the end it was very good, with a good harvest and good concentration. For us the best seasons always start complicated! Like 2012. It is good for us when the ripeness does not develop too quickly. Not too warm at the beginning, but a magnificent August and September, so we keep the freshness. A wet spring is a bit distressing for us but very good for the vineyards!' - Pierre Larmandier
With a pretty, bright, medium straw hue, this is a rich and powerful Terre de Vertus, uniting the depth of apple and pear fruit and ripe grapefruit of 2016 with the toasty, nutty, spicy, honeyed overlay of barrel and foudre fermentation. It’s a developed style ready to drink now.
Tasted 2023 Rating: 90 Tyson Stelzer - The Champagne Guide
Certified organic and biodynamic. Spontaneous fermentation. Creamy, tangy, coddled-yogurt richness. Dense and weighty, with layers and layers of richness: brûléed cream and cobnuts, honey and baked feta in pastry. Fascinating sprinkle of dried oregano grace notes. A kaleidoscope of flavour and texture tucked within a very firm, square frame. Linear, smoky end. Serious and magnificent. Drinking range: 2024 - 2035 Rating: 17.5 Tamlyn Currin - www.JancisRobinson.com (May 2024)
Champagne Larmandier-Bernier
Pierre and Sophie Larmandier and their sons Arthur and now Georges too (joined September 2021) are determined to make wines as true as possible to their origins in their different vineyards. These are split into around fifty separate parcels spread across the Côte des Blancs in the grand cru villages of Cramant, Chouilly, Oger and Avize, and the premier cru of Vertus.
All but three of the parcels (representing 0.5 hectares) are farmed using non-officially certified biodynamic methods. Wines are made only from their own 15 hectares of vines, which are on average 33 years old. All of their Champagnes are the purest expressions of Chardonnay.
Working only with natural yeasts the influence of 'terroir' is all important to the style of his wines, so much so that he uses a minimum 'dosage' (if at all) so as not to mask the wines natural characteristics.
Pierre has recently changed the 'Tradition' cuvée, re-launching it as 'Latitude', and it is now also a Blanc de Blancs, with its origins in the vineyards south of Vertus. The old 'Blanc de Blancs cuvée, which is known henceforth as 'Longitude', comes exclusively from vineyards on the Cote de Blancs itself and is classified Premier Cru'.
The Pinot Noir is now reserved exclusively for Pierre's distinctive dark rosé and for the Vertus Rouge Coteaux Champenois.
Awarded the Robert Parker Green emblem in July 2021.
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