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