2013 Larmandier-Bernier BB Vieilles Vignes du Levant

The 2013 Champagne Vieille Vigne Du Levant takes things to the next level at Larmandier-Bernier. I love the aromatics, which flaunt the subtle and pretty of this cold vintage. Pouring a bright yellow color, it reveals detailed floral and candied citrus aromas in its notes of lemon drop candy, honeysuckle, and almond croissant. Medium to full-bodied, this is the most complete wine I have tasted today from this house, with a refined mousse and seamless acidity, and it only sees 2 grams per liter of dosage. This remarkable wine is drinking fantastically now and will have a long life ahead over the next decades. It’s long on the palate and a memorable wine.

100% Chardonnay from old-vine south-east-facing plots in Cramant. Vines between 57 and 80 years old. Spontaneous fermentation in old wooden vats and casks. Natural malo. Wines are aged on lees, unfined, unfermented. Tirage is followed by eight years sur lattes. Disgorged by hand and aged for a year in bottle before release. Dosage 2 g/l. Smells like lemon posset with a quenelle of caramel. Then something sweetly herbal – angelica, sweet cicely. Lacy mousse and apple honey disguise a steely core. Wild ripe apples and a scarf of smoke. Layer upon layer upon layer of violin-like soaring flavour. Fennel, angelica, apple, kumquat and masses of spice, lime marmalade, lime pickle. Minerality like tiny marbled pebbles. Texture like holding your lips a breath away from the vibrating strings of a violin played by a maestro. Monumental, staggering complexity. It is impossible to capture a wine like this in a snatched, hurried moment during a walk-around tasting. Anything I write is going to be a disservice. (TC)