NV Geoffroy Purete 1er Cru

Like his corresponding “Expression” cuvee, featuring slightly less Meunier than Pinot and Pinot than Chardonnay, but issuing – unlike that wine – from vintages 2008 and 2007, Geoffroy’s NV Brut Nature Purete Disg. 6/2013 also lays claim to zero residual sugar. Adamantly chalky, and tasting more of the pit than its apple, this preserves only modest juiciness, but finishes with penetrating, nutty piquancy and a striking suggestion of chalkiness. I would be inclined to drink it young to the extent that its style appeals to you. Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy – who recently moved from Cumieres two villages over into a new, gravity-fed cellar in Ay – deserves kudos for having staged or otherwise facilitated for the benefit of wine journalists and tradespeople numerous blind re-enactments of dosage trials, which inter alia serve to combat such wrongheaded beliefs as that sense of sweetness linearly tracks residual sugar or that differences in residual sugar cash out, when at all, solely in terms of perceived sweetness. Since 2008, incidentally, Geoffroy has vinified a parcel he planted mixed with Arbanne and Petit Meslier as well as the familiar trio of cepage, but thus far he has not deemed any wine from that plot ready for release. Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300