Les Pierrières (2017)
NV
Region
France › Champagne › Champagne AOC › Côte de Sézanne
Type
white · sparkling · extra-brut
Grapes
Chardonnay
Alcohol
12.5%
Volume
750 mL
Sugar
6.5 g/L
Tasting Notes
It was interesting to compare 2017-based Les Pierrières with 2015-based that we tasted like a month ago. And the younger release is more generous and fascinating. Sophisticated and delicate bouquet of candied fruits, lemon zest, spring flowers, wet stones and almond paste. Precise, medium-full-bodied. It shows a bit of tension, but it only makes the wine more beautiful and nuanced. The aftertaste is just endless. Salinity is wonderful.
About
40-year-old Chardonnay have southern exposure and are planted on chalky soils that also feature chunks and pockets of a rare black flint or silex noir unique to Coteaux du Petit Morin. Pierrières was Olivier Collin's first bottling, and only bottling, in the 2004 vintage. The fruit is hand-harvested, the clusters destemmed and the grapes gently pressed; the juice is fermented spontaneously and slowly (up to six months) with natural yeasts in mainly-used Burgundy barrels. Reserve wines are held in foudres and tonneaux. The wine is based on 2017. It's bottled without fining or filtering and aged for 36 months on lees.
