NV Diebolt Vallois Tradition

Diebolt-Vallois' NV Brut Tradition Disg. 3/2013 - incorporating slightly more than half Meunier and Pinot from around Epernay, and roughly equal parts 2009 and 2008 - features simple but luscious pear and apple supported by generous but not overtly sweet dosage and tinged with strawberry, chalk, and lemon zest. This polished, proportional and soothing as well as refreshing bottling will prove delightful over the coming year. Jacque Diebolt represents the third generation of this family of Alsacienne origin to estate-bottle, a lineage that goes all the way back to the turn of the dawn of the 20th century. He and his wife Nadia nee Vallois have established an enviable reputation and been highly influential in inspiring others to estate-bottle and consumers to appreciate Champagne as a great wine. Well-sited vineyards and a predominance of old vines and selections massales in Cramant, Chouilly, Cuis and Epernay are certainly instrumental in those achievements. Vinification here is typically at low temperature in jacketed stainless steel - which the Diebolts believe conduces to "the expression of minerality" - though certain wines see time in foudres or barriques; and with one exception they routinely undergo malo-lactic transformation. Although most of the wines I tasted had seven grams of residual sugar in common, Madame Vallois-Diebolt sought to assure me that they conduct bench trials in one-gram increments. She added that they bottle a non-dose version of their "tradition" but only at the request of an insistent Belgian client, and I wasn't able to encourage her sufficiently to let me taste it. (This is, incidentally, one of an increasing number of top estates to officially become negociants - trading the little letters "RM" on their labels for "NM" - as a means of expanding their production, but without sacrificing one iota of viticultural control: they merely purchase the fruit from vineyards they now farm that are in the extended family, in this case Nadia Vallois' paternal estate.) Imported by Martine's Wines, Inc., Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400; Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608-9644; and Vintage 59 Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 966-9218