Alhena Blanc de Blancs

Alhena is Lamiable's Blanc de Blancs, and the odd one out in a Pinot-led, Tours-sur-Marne house. The fruit is not from Tours-sur-Marne at all: it comes from Billy-le-Grand, a premier cru village out on the eastern side of the Grande Montagne de Reims, which is where the cru level on the bottle comes from. Tours-sur-Marne, where the house sits, is grand cru, and Lamiable does bottle a Chardonnay from there as grand cru - Phéérie - so the two Blancs de Blancs carry different classifications for a reason of origin, not of grape.

100% Chardonnay, dosed at 4.5 g/L, Extra-Brut, 12.5%. Tirage was in late March 2023 and disgorgement in 2025, so somewhere around two to two and a half years on the lees.

Lamiable is a third-generation grower house run since 2003 by Ophélie Lamiable with her husband Arnaud, working about six hectares; its crown cuvée is an old-vine Blanc de Noirs from a 1953 parcel.