APPEARANCE
From the Grands Crus Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Seven years on lees, disgorged May 2021, with dosage 4.5 g/l. 15,173 bottles produced.
Tight, smoky nose. Salted lemon palate. Very tense and energetic. Tightly furled. Very good but ideally worth waiting for.
Jancis Robinson – 17/20
This 2013 vintage is marked by a limpid and crystalline freshness, which gradually reveals the fullness of what became a generous summer.
The 2013 Blanc de Blancs is made exclusively from the first pressing, the purest, of Grands Crus Chardonnay from the heart of the Côte des Blancs: Le Mesnil-sur-Oger et Oger, 25% of which were vinified in old oak barrels.
It benefits from seven years ageing on the lees and a further 12 to 18 months of rest after disgorgement. Dosage: Extra Brut (4.5g/l).
THE BLEND
100% CHARDONNAY
AGEING
7 YEARS ON THE LEES
12 TO 18 MONTHS AFTER DISGORGEMENT
AVAILABILITY
75 cl
150 cl
THE 2013 VINTAGE
To understand the 2013 vintage, it is essential to study its origins. The Autumn of 2012 was relatively wet, which resulted in plenty of foliage and replenished water reserve. The rain ensured good levels of water accumulated in the soil before winter. Winter itself was relatively short and cold, typically 2.3 degrees lower than the 10-year average. Spring remained cool, but there was no frost damage, and the vines budded late at the end of April.
The cold weather and the permanently humid conditions sustained this delay to the vegetative cycle. Fortunately, summer got off to a wonderful start and full flowering was in early July! The summer was then hot and dry, although stormy at times. The vines were unable to catch up and continued to mature relatively slowly.
It is this that made the harvest difficult, because in Autumn the weather deteriorated. It started, depending on the crus, between 24th September and 9th October and finished on 20th October. The Chardonnays, which were picked first, were the big winners of the Indian Summer at the start of the harvest.
« LIBERTE » BY ANNE COMMET
This is a joyful and lively wine. It is not held captive. It is not dominated by any one of its components or by a thunderous character. It opens and blossoms perfectly, fully. To illustrate this wine, the artist Anne Commet was commissioned on the theme “Liberté”.
Her work relates to the experience of the landscape. Combining fragments of scenes and moments, she builds maps of intimate and ordinary places. These assemblages explore both the permanence and fragility of nature; the memory which we hold of a specific place or moment, our relationship to the world and to time.
Commet develops her work at The 100 – Establishment Cultural Solidarity – within a multidisciplinary programme on nature, at the Manoir de Mouthier Haute-Pierre with La DRAC (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs) Franches-Comté, and – since 2020 – at Poush, a contemporary, creative space in Paris. She works across difference mediums such as paint, photography and video.
TASTING NOTES
A brilliant, pale gold tint, with a fine and chiselled effervescence.
NOSE
A both fresh and biting, and generous. Primary notes of cooled ashes and white flowers (hawthorn), opening somewhat slowly to reveal white peach and lemon verbena, with fresh almond.
PALATE
Lively and precise, with a crystalline and limpid attack, diffusing a beguiling salinity. The wine then settles in the mouth with a texture that is both ample and molten. There is almost a minty freshness on the palate, accompanied – as the wine opens up – by a slightly fleshy fruitiness plums which evolves towards roasted hazelnuts.
THE PERFECT MATCH
It calls for the texture of monkfish or prawns as an accompaniment.
THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT IT ...
”From the Grand Cru villages of Oger and Mesnil-sur-Oger. Disgorged in May 2021 after seven years on lees, dosage 4.5 g/litre. Concentrated but delicate and fresh with a pure citrus fruit palate, with some subtle saltiness and a hint of oyster shell. It’s very bright with a lovely transparency across the palate: no sign of heaviness and a lovely acid line, with fine toastiness and the crispness of a cold Autumn morning. Pure lemony fruit runs the show here: serious, assured.”
Jamie Goode – 94/100
“From the Grands Crus Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Seven years on lees, disgorged May 2021, with dosage 4.5 g/l. 15,173 bottles produced. Tight, smoky nose. Salted lemon palate. Very tense and energetic. Tightly furled. Very good but ideally worth waiting for.”
Jancis Robinson – 17/20
“Sourced from grand cru vineyards in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger in the Côte des Blancs, it sets out with an intense fragrance of zesty lemons. In the glass it grows in weight and texture—oak fermentation of a quarter of the wine bringing a light toastiness—and it becomes delicately almond creamy before a crisply mouth-watering salinity grips the tongue in a refreshingly zesty, dry finish. A delightful label, commissioned from French artist Anne Commet, reflects the theme of Liberté. Disgorged in May 2021 with 4.5 grams per litre dosage. Ageing: now to 2029. Food: shellfish.”
Anthony Rose – 94/100
