2008 Champ Alouette Extra Brut Grand Cru Le Mesnil

100% Chardonnay from grand cru Champ d'Alouette and Mesnil-sur-Oger. Tirage May 2008, disgorged May 2022. Dosage 2 g/l. 14 years sur lattes. Richer, very different from and much more seductive than the high-wired 2007. Note of caramel, morels, butter and buttered hazelnuts, but under that richness and in the cool, shadowy edges, moss and stones and herbs. And so much orange! Bitter orange, sweet orange, blood orange. Mouth-watering and just pulsing with energy and full of emotion: Barber's adagio for strings, liquid. After a long tasting of nearly 80 wines, this was the wine that made me feel alive again. It was like a shot in the arm, voltage to the soul. (TC)