NV Pierre Peters Les Vignes Oubliees

Lemons, pears, sweet pastries, oyster shells and pie crust on the nose of this beautifully balanced and complex Champagne. Creamy and rounded with salty-sweet pastry elements and wonderful continuity. Silky bubbles. This is a blend of reserve wines, with the youngest vintage 2019, bottled in 2021 and aged on the lees under cork. Disgorged November 2024. Drink now or hold.

The NV Champagne Grand Cru Blanc De Blancs Reserve Oubliée Brut is based around the 2016 vintage in this release. A bright straw/silver color, it opens to a floral and fruity bouquet of white peach, jasmine, lime candies, chalky earth, and frangipane. This cuvée is predominantly raised in stainless steel, but the reserve wine is brought up in a combination of stainless steel, concrete tanks, and Stockinger barrels, adding a bit more depth that’s felt in the resulting wine. Medium to full-bodied, it takes on the concentration and texture of silky citrus oils, a refined mousse, and a rounded and elegant feel through the finish. It’s hard to resist now but it will reward those who wait. Drink 2026-2040.

Disgorged in March 2024 with four grams per liter dosage, based on the 2018 vintage (50%) and complemented by a perpetual reserve component that dates back to 1988, the NV Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Réserve Oubliée goes through partial malolactic fermentation (as the rest of Péters wines) and is matured for about 18 months in a variety of vessels: large wooden casks, stainless steel tanks and concrete (roughly one-third each) before aging under cork in the bottle. Péters observes, and the wine confirms, that long aging on the lees contributes to an aromatic range of complexity that evokes associations of maturation in barrels. Opening in the glass to reveal notes of baked bread, toasted nuts, vanilla pod and dried fruit, it is harmonious and enveloping, laden with vibrant acidity and marked by lip-puckering salinity. It’s a perfect blanc de blancs for enjoying now, while laying down Les Chétillons in the cellar.