Placeholder Image

Grower Champagne Paul Déthune, Grand Cru, Brut MAGNUM

Champagne, Montagne de Reims, France Non-Vintage (1500mL)
$115.00
/
Your cart is empty.
  • In stock, ready to ship
  • Inventory on the way
Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Grower Champagne Paul Déthune, Grand Cru, Brut MAGNUM


As we’ve noted before, Champagne Paul Déthune is one of the true ambassadors of the village of Ambonnay, which anchors Champagne’s Montagne de Reims sub-region. Pinot Noir is the dominant variety here, and Ambonnay is one of its many villages whose vineyards are designated Grand Cru (in fact, 11 of the 17 Champagne villages with a Grand Cru designation are on the Montagne de Reims). Along with its neighboring village, Bouzy, Ambonnay is known for full-bodied, darker-toned Champagnes that speak of perhaps the ripest, most structured Pinot Noir grown in Champagne.



Current-generation proprietors Pierre and Sophie Déthune organically farm just 7 hectares of vines in Ambonnay, embodying the spirit of the récoltant-manipulant, or ‘grower-producer’ – more and more of whom are finding enthusiastic fans in the US. And what’s not to love? It’s not so much a repudiation of big Champagne houses, who blend wines from all over Champagne, but rather an embrace of the small, the feisty, and, perhaps most important, the site-specific. Champagne has long been defined by great ‘brands,’ but these days some village names carry as much weight on a label as producer names. Ambonnay (also home to sommelier-favorite Egly-Ouriet) is one of them.



For this non-vintage cuvée – their flagship wine, the introduction to the house style – the Déthunes blend 70% Pinot Noir with 30% Chardonnay from the limestone-rich soils of Ambonnay, and they incorporate a rather large percentage of reserve wine (from 30 to 50 percent) in the blend, lending the wine its signature depth and grip. It’s a forceful, textural, opulent style of Champagne. It’s a deep straw-gold in the glass, and it seduces with aromas of brioche dough, red fruits, crushed gravel and warm spices. On the palate it has a creaminess born not just of ripe fruit but of extended lees aging, the overall effect quite powerful, brooding. To me this isn’t an apéritif Champagne; this needs to be on the table with food, as all too few Champagnes are allowed to be. It would be a great cheese wine, a fantastic partner for richer seafoods, but really what I think about when I taste this wine is the ultimate in ‘high-low’ pairings: Fried Chicken. If you haven’t done the Champagne-and-fried-chicken thing, now is the time! Serve this well-chilled (but not *too* chilled) in regular white wine glasses (ditch the flutes here) and experience Champagne in a new way. It’s wine – treat it that way!


Placeholder Image
Country
France
Region
Champagne, Montagne de Reims
Sub-Region
FranceAmbonnay
Soil
Clay and Chalk
Farming
Organic
Blend
70% Pinot Noir / 30% Chardonnay
Alcohol
12.5
OAK
Neutral French
TEMP.
48-50
Glassware
Regular White Wine Glasses
Drinking
Now-2024
Pairing
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/skillet-fried-chicken

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

Others We Love