Rich and full-bodied, extended bottle aging, a skilled blend of Champagne’s three noble grapes, and intricate floral detail...does it look and sound a lot like Perrier-Jouët’s “Belle Epoque” prestige bottling? It did to us, but more importantly, it has the authentic feel of a luxurious
tête de cuvée wine. Charpentier has really outdone themselves: This extremely limited “Brut Prestige” drinks leagues above its price category while checking off the same, lengthy list of attributes touted by extravagantly priced, “Big Champagne House” bottlings.
Today’s direct-from-the cellar allocation is a blend of great years, with the base wine coming from the sensational 2012 vintage—one Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon of Louis Roederer said was “probably better than 1996.” Next, you must factor in the bottle aging, with over four years on lees and two more in the bottle after disgorgement; this is an insane amount of patience for a wine that comes in well under $50. And the taste? All-out luxury that showcases fully-ripe fruits, savory brioche undertones, and intense crushed minerality. What a showing from this small grower-producer estate! Make sure you grab a handful now because we were, sadly, unable to acquire their newest release this year...so, this is it!
The prominent placement of the word vigneron (vine-grower) on Charpentier’s labels shouldn’t go unnoticed: This is the kind of thing you’re more likely to see in Burgundy than in Champagne, which we tend to think of as a more ‘brand-driven’ region. But of course, the rise of small grower-producers in Champagne has been one of the great wine stories of the modern age, with “new” houses popping up seemingly out of nowhere with spectacular hand-grown, hand-made wines. Of course, they’re not new to the region, or to wine—they’re just new to us, having elected to stop selling their fruit to négociants and instead release their own proprietary wines.
The J. Charpentier estate, as currently constructed, represents the convergence of two Champagne wine families, Charpentier and Claisse, both with regional histories dating back multiple generations. When Jacky Charpentier married Claudine Claisse in 1974, two family farms became one: Based in the village of Villers-sous-Châtillon, about 12 kilometers west of Epernay in the Vallée de la Marne subzone, the Charpentier holdings now span 15 hectares—and more precisely, 38 plots across nine Marne villages. Jacky and Claudine’s son, Jean-Marc, has been at the winemaking controls since 2004, and the family employs organic methods in the vineyards unless an emergency arises (the classic lutte raisonnée, or ‘reasoned fight,’ approach).
For Charpentier’s “Brut Prestige” vintage bottling, all three noble grapes for Champagne (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Meunier) were farmed across five prominent villages strung along the banks of the Marne River. Each one was hand-harvested and carefully shuttled back to home base abutting Reuil to the north, where alcoholic and malolactic fermentation occurred. Afterward, the batches were blended together, along with older reserve wines from 2009 and 2010 that had been carefully preserved in both stainless steel and large oak vessels. The final assemblage was 60% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay, and 20% Meunier. Today’s “Brut Prestige” aged well over four years on its lees. It was then disgorged, topped off with an eight-gram dosage, and allowed to mature further before it was shipped directly to us. Once the batch landed at our temperature-controlled warehouse in mid-2018, we rested it for an additional eight months—it was well worth the wait!
Mirabelle plum, baked yellow apples, pineapple core, honeysuckle, Asian pear, Meyer lemon, Toasted nuts, buttered brioche, crushed chalk, wet stones, damp white flowers...it may be a bit unorthodox to start a tasting paragraph by blasting out a string of succulent flavors, but that’s exactly what Charpentier’s “Brut Prestige” does when the cork is pulled. It’s explosively ripe and alluring, which results in a near-full-bodied Champagne that reads as round and creamy with a solid foundation of minerals. And, despite having aged nearly six years in bottle now, it is absurdly fresh and inviting—meaning, there isn’t one trace of oxidation to be found. When consuming, pour into wide-mouthed tulips or all-purpose white stems around 50-55 degrees and store a few bottles in a dark, cool place over the next 5+ years to watch the beautiful secondaries come out of hiding. You can drink this stellar Champagne a number of ways: as a standalone, with any hors d'oeuvre imaginable, or next to a range of main dishes. However, we suggest you check out Macheesmo’s “scuffle with a truffle.” Scallops with a savory twist? Count us in!
