2013 Doyard Clos de l’Abbaye

Disgorged in March 2019 with two grams per liter dosage, the 2013 Extra-Brut Premier Cru Clos de l'Abbaye is brilliant, mingling notes of citrus oil, peach and pear with hints of wheat toast and walnuts in an incipiently complex bouquet. Full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, the vintage's racy acid spine is cloaked in a textural, enveloping core of fruit, concluding with a long and resonant finish. This derives from a walled 40-are plot of 60-year-old cordon-pruned vines just behind the winery in Vertus; only the first press juice is used. This is a strikingly good Champagne.