When I first tasted this wine I thought of Alicia Keys. Allow me to explain:
Alicia Keys is a very beautiful and talented pop singer who made the ‘controversial’ decision to show up makeup-free at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. She caught a lot of flak, especially among people who resented her for being pretty enough to get away with it.
This wine from Champagne Lallier is the vinous equivalent of Alicia: an intense, aromatic, focused wine that is beautiful despite being bottled without a dosage (‘doh-SAHJ’), which one could think of as the Champagne region’s equivalent of makeup. This wine presents the bright fruit and gripping minerality of Champagne without adornment. It’s as powerful and clear as an Alicia Keys high note.
There are a number of factors that influence ‘house style’ in Champagne. Does the producer allow the ‘base’ wines – the ‘still’ Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs they are about to turn sparkling – to go through malolactic fermentation (which would create a rounder, creamier style)? Does the producer age any or all of the base wines in oak barrels? How long does the producer leave the wine to rest on its fine lees (the spent yeast cells left over from the second fermentation)? And how about the dosage? After a Champagne which has been aging “en tirage” is disgorged (i.e. the little plug of lees that has collected in the neck of the bottle is ejected), a small amount of sugar syrup is added at the last moment before the final cork is inserted and the cage tightened. It has long been viewed as a ‘corrective’ dose of sweetness to a notoriously dry, acidic, chalky wine, and the amount of sugar used varies from producer to producer. Ultimately, dosage has a measurable impact on a wine’s texture and palate impression.
Dosage is in no way a bad thing – all Champagne houses use it, and usually for their flagship wines. ‘Brut Nature’ wines are an addition to a producer’s product line, not a foundation; when you see a wine labeled like this, you are encountering a Champagne that is the driest of the dry in the Champagne spectrum. Whereas ‘Brut’ Champagne – universally regarded as ‘dry’ – can contain as much of 12 grams/liter of residual sugar, Brut Nature is in the 0-2 grams/liter range for which the wine authorities will accept.
So now that I’ve geeked out on the peculiarities of Champagne, why this Lallier? Because it is a wine of laser-guided focus and intensity, a powerful Champagne that doesn’t belong in the cocktail hour, but rather on the table with main-course entrees. I think in particular of a certain breed of ‘Michelin Star’ food – delicate but concentrated in flavor, elegantly presented, modestly proportioned. A perfectly cooked piece of fish with a beurre blanc or sauce meunière would be great, but this wine could take on heavier dishes as well. It might not seem like it at first sip, but there’s a lot of power here.
There’s also plenty of history: the Lallier brand goes back to 1906, and its roots are in the Grand Cru village of Aÿ, where the estate’s best vineyards are located. These days Lallier is owned by Francis Tribaut, who is also the estate director, who sources fruit, not just from the estate-owned vineyards in Aÿ but a host of other vineyard sites across the Champagne region including the famous villages of: Avize, Cramant, Oger?, Verzenay, Bouzy, and Ambonnay.
Now to the particulars of this wine: as with any ‘non-vintage’ Champagne, this wine is based around a certain vintage and blended with ‘reserve’ wines from previous years (the percentage of ‘reserve wine’ used in a non-vintage blend is yet another determinant of Champagne quality). What Lallier has done here is festoon the label with a little code: “R” stands for récolte (‘harvest’), and this case it means the predominance of the wine (80%) is from the 2012 vintage. The remainder of the blend is reserve wines, and then the wine spends just over three years on lees. The final blend is about 38% Chardonnay and 62% Pinot Noir.
I found this wine to be extremely dense – despite its absence of dosage, which typically lends texture – and focused. It’s like a drag racer that leaves a trail of flames on your palate. It’s such a transparent expression of the Champagne terroir: a big blast of chalk followed by green apple, lime zest, lemon blossom and the slightest touch of cream. I shouldn’t ‘go here’ but I’m reminded of the power and intensity of a young Krug Clos du Mesnil on the palate: and for all the many recipes I could suggest, I think perhaps the best way to enjoy this electric Champagne is to BYOB to your favorite sushi spot, where you should enjoy it ice-cold alongside the most pristine sashimi. No makeup, no problem. Here is a quick guide to
making Sushi at home if you are up for it. Having a good source for fresh fish and plenty of friends around is key. Enjoy!
