Assemblage Sans Année Autre Cru (2020)

Sans Année Assemblage is Nowack's house multi-vintage cuvee from Vandières parcels - 60% Pinot Meunier and 40% Chardonnay, base 2020 plus around 40% reserve wines from 2012 through 2019 (year-by-year reserve blending, not a solera). 'Autre Cru' is not a Nowack coinage; it is the official Champagne classification for Vandières, which sits at 86% on the échelle des crus, in the Autres Crus tier below Premier Cru's 90-99% - the cuvee name winks at the village's own designation.

Terroir: parcels of Vandières, sandy limestone over marl. The back label foregrounds biodiversity in the parcel - 'présence d'arbres et d'animaux dans la parcelle' - i.e. agroforestry rather than monoculture. Indigenous-yeast fermentation, slow and complete; elevage in oak barrels. For the prise de mousse the tirage liqueur is fresh unfermented grape juice (moût) from the following vintage rather than added sugar or rectified concentrate (MCR), which carries the bottle to a lower pressure than typical Champagne and a more vinous texture. Malolactic is neither blocked nor inoculated - the producer is silent on it and importers split between 'malo happens naturally in spring' and 'no malo sought', so the truth is permissive rather than prescribed.

Disgorged July 2023, around 24 months on lees. Dosage 1 g/L (extra-brut). 12%.