Of all the gems that we secured in our importing trip to France last fall, tonight's Friday Champagne bonus is perhaps the most unique and exciting. Over 99% of all the planted grapes in this most iconic region are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. There are actually a handful of other allowable varieties but they make up less than half a percent of the total vines, so you rarely see them and when you do they’re tiny proportions of a blend. But we managed to find a 100% Pinot Blanc cuvée from a small family farm on the edge of Champagne, and we have the last 12 cases that they made! Lovers of Blanc de Blancs will find a lot of delicious familiarity here, but there’s a texture and aromatic expression that is all its own. Champagne enthusiasts definitely need to try this, but really anyone who loves tiny production, one-of-a-kind wines with a completely unique personality should be loading up their cart.
*NOTE: This is a pre-arrival offer, wines are en route from France and are estimated to arrive in mid-October.
The sleepy hamlet of Buxeuil sits on the southern edge of the Champagne region, in the Côte des Bar. This is definitely the country, or hinterland, where sheep, cows, and vines far outnumber people, and it's geographically and culturally very far from the glitz and glamor of Reims. It takes less than an hour to get here from Chablis, but you have to drive close to two hours north to reach the heart of Épernay. This is where we discovered the small domaine of Christian Diligent, sitting just a few hundred feet away from the bank of the Seine. Yes, that’s the same river that runs famously through the heart of Paris, but here it is a small, and extremely clean-looking, body of water near the beginning of its journey (45 miles from Source-Seine).
The “estate” is a handsome, but modest house with a medium sized cellar and winery behind it and just enough space for some standard equipment. Unlike the promenades of Épernay and Reims, there is no tasting room here, so I sat down at what was basically a kitchen table as the family (Christian, his wife, and their children) all bustled about and poured us the full range of their wines. Everything was excellent–clean, transparent, elegant and yet also pleasingly rustic–but one cuvée stood out for its distinct aromatics and ample texture. Turns out this was their very rare bottling of 100% Pinot Blanc. This grape has been grown in the Aube generally, and here at the edge of the Côte des Bar for centuries (Francophiles will note that this region is almost as close to Alsace as it is to Reims), but as Champagne gained popularity and commercialized over the past decades almost all of these vines were replanted to Pinot Noir or Chardonnay.
The Diligent clan though (true to their name!) have stood by their small parcel of Pinot Blanc for generations, and that means something. This family has been living, farming, and tending vines in Buxeuil since 1637, so they have close to four centuries of generational knowledge when it comes to the local terroir. It was Christian’s grandfather, Georges, who began making his own wine, and labeling it with the family name back in 1958. Today they bottle almost the entire production themselves–although that isn’t a huge amount of wine!
This special cuvée of 100% Pinot Blanc is primarily comprised of the 2019 vintage, and it was fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks for several months before being bottled and undergoing second fermentation. It was then aged for an additional 36 months on the fine lees before disgorgement and a very judicious dosage of four grams per liter–hence the “Extra-Brut” designation. Serve it chilled, though not ice cold, in an all-purpose stem. It has a brilliant, golden hue that is a bit deeper thanks to the Pinot Blanc, and the aromatics are a unique combination of Bosc pear, white peach, apricot, lemon curd, peanut shell, elderflower, citrus blossom, and wet stones. The elegant, medium-bodied palate has a very fine, soft mousse and a long, saline finish. This is such a rare treat: I would serve it with some fine passed canapes, or some high quality washed rind cheeses, but it would also be a deliciously unique pairing for sushi night. In truth it’s so reasonably priced, especially given the rarity, that you should grab enough to try it on multiple occasions, over the coming months and years. But don’t wait, we have very little and then that’s it for the entire country!
