Ultradition (d2023)

Ultradition is Laherte Frères' introduction to itself: the house's non-vintage brut, built around Meunier from the family's home ground at Chavot in the Coteaux Sud d'Épernay, with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir filling in behind. It draws on selected parcels across a spread of villages, a single base vintage stretched with a deep reserve of older wines - roughly forty percent - though not the perpetual solera that feeds the Les 7 cuvée. Aurélien Laherte makes it the way he makes everything: spontaneous fermentation mostly in wood, malolactic only partly allowed, long ageing on the fine lees, and a low six-to-eight-gram dosage that leaves it barely sweetened. Direct and Meunier-juicy - citrus, a little brioche, a chalky-saline edge - it is the everyday face of the estate, terroir before power. The name folds "ultra" into "tradition", though the domaine has never spelled out why. This bottling was disgorged in April 2023.