Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Brut

Chardonnay from Trépail, grown and vinified on the same property - Cuvée élaborée à la propriété à partir de raisin Chardonnay - and the blend is exactly that, 100% Chardonnay and nothing else. Brut, 12%, non-vintage, with no base year declared.

Trépail is the interesting part. The Montagne de Reims is Pinot Noir country, and this is one of the pockets along its eastern edge that went the other way: on the UMC's count 254 of the commune's 280 hectares are Chardonnay, against 26 of Pinot Noir. The slopes face south-east at an average of 164 m with chalk running right through the subsoil, and the village is classified premier cru, which is the rank the bottle carries.

After that the wine keeps its own counsel. The house publishes no tech sheet and no cuvée page, so dosage, time on lees, steel or wood, whether malolactic ran, how much reserve wine went in - none of it is on record anywhere I could find, and the merchants carrying it add a price and their own tasting note and little else. The range gives away one thing. The same Chardonnay also goes into Cuvée Hédoné, which a French merchant lists as zéro dosage, sans liqueur ajoutée. So this one is dosed, and Hédoné is the version that isn't, by an amount nobody states.