Roederer’s 2010 Blanc de Blancs comes from Avize. “Great blanc de blancs is not just a Chardonnay Champagne, but a Champagne from a great vineyard.”įor Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, executive vice president and cellarmaster of Champagne Louis Roederer, blanc de blancs “must first carry all the flavors of a ripe Chardonnay, but, because it is a single-variety wine, it also needs to express its origin and soil.” “You can’t reduce a Champagne just to its grape variety,” says Gimonnet. Based in the Côte des Blancs Premier Cru village of Cuis, where the family has been growing grapes since 1750 and bottling estate wines since 1935, Gimonnet only produces blanc de blancs Champagnes. That link between terroir and taste is essential for Didier Gimonnet, the second generation of growers to direct his family winery, Pierre Gimonnet et Fils. The minerality and saltiness it imparts on Chardonnay translates into crisp, tight, well-balanced Champagnes with a pure and elegant aromatic intensity. Chardonnay generally loves such cool-climate conditions, but these vineyards excel particularly well thanks to chalk-heavy subsoil and the east-facing vines that capture ample warmth from the morning sun.īut it’s more than that: The chalk soil was once ancient seabed, and now it contains millions of small, fossilized creatures. What makes this slope and these vines so special? Champagne is the coolest vine-growing region in France, one that sees bitterly cold winters and mild summers. Called blanc de blancs, meaning “white of whites,” these are Champagnes made exclusively from white grapes-in this case, Chardonnay. The grapes grown here are used to make some of the region’s finest Champagnes. Spanning 12 miles of chalk-rich soils, the Côte de Blancs is home to magnificent Chardonnay vineyards. There’s a slope in Champagne that produces magic. Decorative Wine Racks & Modular Systems.As for Champagne’s other wines, maturity provides them with notes of brioche, fresh butter, biscuit dough and toast. When older, they take on notes of dried fruit, hazelnuts, almonds, ripe apples, honey and wax. These wines have notes of white flowers (hawthorn, honeysuckle, linden, acacia, jasmine and orange blossom), citrus fruits (grapefruit, lemon) and exotic fruits (lychee, pineapple) as well as apples, pears and spices (aniseed, ginger) and even mint notes. As they age, they take on a creamy, velvety texture. Such Champagne wines are marked by a balance between citrus acidity and light mellowness. It manifests itself on the palate in a combination of two sensations: acidity and salinity. Other notes evocative of minerality include stone, graphite, chalk, flint, oysters and shells. How do you identify it? There are aromas of gunflint on the nose. They’re also typified by a sensation that’s hard to describe, referred to as 'minerality'.

They’re expressions of the chalky terroirs responsible for their creation. They’re bright, refreshing wines, whose liveliness comes as a pleasant surprise to palate and taste buds.

This style of Champagne is light to taste and all about finesse. One or more white grape varieties such as Chardonnay, of course, but also Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris are included in the blend. The term 'Blanc de Blancs' designates wines in which there are no black grape varieties.

Presentation A Champagne made with white grapes

Blanc de blanc