After taking over from his parents in 1950, the humble yet grand old man of Champagne’s Côte des Blancs, Monsieur Christian Coquillette, has handcrafted traditional wines from his family’s vineyards without pause. His winery’s plain façade in the Champagne epicenter of Épernay is unobtrusive, and perfectly conceals the gem that makes this operation run: The ancient wine caves that snake underground for thousands of feet. Legacy isn’t all that Monsieur Coquillette has going for himself. He handcrafts this incredible Champagne of 100% Chardonnay from 11.5-hectares in the Grand Cru village of Chouilly, which rest over the “Roche Mere,” or mother rock, a massive limestone formation that extends deeply into the earth.

To say that Christian Coquillette is old school would be a vast understatement. While most wineries now use machines for the process of remuage, he continues to riddle his wines by hand and marks each movement with a sliver of chalk to force the spent lees into the neck of the bottle. The wine itself is aged on its fine lees well past the AOC requirements which makes for a flavor profile and quality that will never leave you. When the wine is finally ready to leave the cold security blanket that is his ancient cellar, Christian hand labels his bottles with the same care that he takes to raise his vines. The result is an experience that truly transcends mere words—it is magic!

After Coquillette’s Chardonnay was hand farmed and harvested in 2008, the grapes were gently pressed in his cellar and underwent a long élevage. The resulting wine was sent into bottle in late 2009 where it aged on its lees, undisturbed, until the fall of this year! As a result, you’re getting a remarkable, perfectly mature Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs that shatters just about any competition in terms of authenticity, deliciousness, and value. Simply put, this wine epitomizes everything I love about champagne both in taste and tradition. It pours a radiant silver-yellow in the glass and, around 50-55 degrees, its tightly coiled aromas burst out with open arms after giving your all-purpose glass a few swirls. You’ll find decadent notes of ripe yellow apples, salt-preserved lemon, fruit curd, honeysuckle, pineapple, apricot, and yellow peach all on a finely crushed bed of wet stones, chalk, and oyster shell. The palate is immense and round with deep, fleshy layers of inviting yellow-white fruit and an intense, pulsating core of atomized minerality. Although it took three years for us to finally showcase another Vintage Champagne from Saint-Chamant, today’s legendary 2008 was well worth the wait. This only comes to America in the smallest of quantities, so take what you can because (1) it’ll last a decade or more and (2) who knows when we’ll get it again!