All wines
Bérêche & Fils
Ambonnay Grand Cru
2017
4.7
Region
France › Champagne › Montagne de Reims › Grande Montagne de Reims › Ambonnay › Champagne AOC
Type
white · traditional · sparkling · extra-brut
Grapes
Pinot Noir
Alcohol
12.5%
Volume
750 mL
Dosage
3 g/L
Disgorged
2022-07
On lees
~48 months (~4 years)
Tasting Notes(1)
4.7
Oh wow, this is very Burgundy on the nose. Bitter herbs, sesame, iodine, pomegranate, rye bread and pink grapefruit, brioche and spices layered together. Full-bodied, satiny, rich - an elegantly muscular profile with tangy acids leading into a long, expansive finish. This is pure Pinot Noir from Les Tourets, and it shows. The clay soils give it this velvety texture that's completely different from the chalk-driven wines earlier in the flight. Treat it like red Burgundy, because that's basically what it wants to be. Stunning.
About
Ambonnay Grand Cru 2017 is one of the lieu-dit / single-village Pinot Noir bottlings the Bérêche brothers have built around the small Ambonnay parcel they added to the domaine in 2012 - their first Grand Cru holding alongside Mailly. Ambonnay sits on the southern flank of the Montagne de Reims and is one of Champagne's most revered villages for Pinot Noir, prized for the depth and structure it gives the variety.
The 2017 is a vintage cuvee made from 100% Pinot Noir, fermented and aged in oak in the house style, spent roughly four years on lees, and disgorged in July 2022 as Extra Brut. As with the rest of Bérêche's vintage range, the wine bottles in tiny quantities - these single-village expressions are where the domaine's nuance is loudest.
