2015 Franck Bonville Cuvee Les Belles Voyes

Disgorged with a dosage of five grams per liter in April 2023, the 2015 Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Les Belles Voyes comes from the estate’s oldest vines in the village of Oger. It delivers a smoky, deep bouquet with aromas of flowers, lemon oil, ripe orchard fruit and pastry combined with a slightly reductive character. Mineral and vinous, the Champagne on the palate is medium to full-bodied with a mouthwatering, phenolic and chalk-driven finish. It promises graceful aging over the forthcoming five to eight years.

100% Chardonnay from a single 0.8-ha vineyard planted at the top of Oger, close to the border of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Vinified in oak barrels of which less than 10% are new (most are seven or eight years old). Dosage 6.7 g/l. A central horizontal line of acidity, drawing remarkable savouriness in its wake: buckwheat crisp, salty, light-rye sourdough. To begin with, more herbal and spicy than any sense of fruit: roasted-rice sencha, tarragon grassiness, cracked coriander seeds. But then the fruit starts to well up through the middle and grapefruit and white peach pull taut into the finish. A very complex, distinctive and dynamic wine. Requires your full attention. (TC)

100% Chardonnay from a single 0.8-ha vineyard planted at the top of Oger, close to the border of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Their only cuvée vinified with any oak. Fermented in 55 oak barrels – each year they include five new barrels (i.e., 10% are new) and the rest range between one and eight years old. Disgorged February 2023. Dosage 5 g/l. A startling contrast to their other wines. The nose is spice and nuts, cloves, allspice and aniseed. The wine is darkly savoury, almost growling. Rye-seed bread, toasted chia. Strikingly unusual with a long, long, brass-gong tang. Broad and powerful but precise and chiselled. Pickled lemon and pickled ginger. Complex, bold, and so gastronomic! It feels like I’m crunching on toasted seeds and chewing lemons. Just wonderful. (TC)