'Le Vin Tranquille' Coteaux Champenois Blanc

Montagne de Reims, Champagne, France 

An aromatic, crystalline and balanced still chardonnay from Champagne. GWI’s second Champagne producer has landed! The wise and willful Timothée Stroebel works in the northern, premier cru village of Villes Allerand, cultivating the vines his grandfather planted in the 1960s (with a ratio of 55% pinot meunier, 30% pinot noir and 15% chardonnay) and turning them into some of the most exciting Champagnes and Coteaux Champenois the world has ever known. Picking the fruit later than is common for this region allows for fuller phenolic ripeness, while implementing long lees aging and keeping his interference to an absolute minimum (meaning a sprinkle of sulphur to avoid the growth of undesirable bacteria), his lineup offers incomparably honest accounts of the year, land and grapes. Due to the nature of the deep clay “Les Cumines” plot, the chardonnay was more slowly ripened, which promoted a richer, fuller-bodied expression, and was direct pressed before a long sleep. Wedding day florals kissed by reduction, concentrated minerality that feels positively pulled from the ground, grapefruit peels, sugar water fed to hummingbirds, pineapple bingsu, a few drops of iodine & a grilled almond touch of oxidation. Open to commemorate a new day, new move or new year!