AUGUST 2024

Louis Brochet "Extra Blanc" 2015 Extra Blanc is 100% Chardonnay by brother and sister Louis and Hélène. It is an excellent example of Chardonnay in all its richness and opulence. It never teeters off to overblown, instead it finds a nice groove with notes of hazelnut, quince and apricot held together with brilliant structure. This wine comes from the 2015 vintage where warm weather at harvest created an ideal situation for ripeness. The grapes for this blend come from two single vineyards; ‘Les Vouagnes’ in Ecueil and Le Mont Benoit in Villers aux Noeuds. In the vineyards cover crops are planted and all reasonable efforts are made to work sustainably and organically. In the cellar this wine is aged six years before its release and only 2,128 bottles produced for the world, and we saved the last little bit for you.   TECH SHEET

Hélène Beaugrand "Le Grand Carre" Helene Beaugrand’s vineyards are some of the most peculiar in all of Champagne. They lie almost 2 hours by car removed from the heart of the appellation and its rolling chalky hills. Most of that span is filled with crops like sugar beets and wheat. Out there, amongst all the grains there is a small hill of chalk and clay formed in the Upper Cretaceous period and perfectly suited to Chardonnay. The village of Montgueux  is an outlier, unlike anything around it. The vineyards are planted with South-East exposure perfect for ripening grapes. This combination allows grapes to be both generous and complex while maintaining a subtle profile. Helen’s family were the first to replant the village after the ravages of phylloxera and the First World War and her grandfather was the one to establish the appellation in 1927. The Main Street in town is named in his honor. Helene is a brilliant winemaker with years of experience not only in Champagne but also Burgundy, Africa, Australia, the United States, Mexico and New Zealand.  Her wines are as complex as her background. This is a single plot perfectly situated on chalk that shows off the richness and depth of the grape. The winemaking has minimal intervention and the wine spends three years on lees. Only 2,000 bottles were made.  TECH SHEET