Being devout followers of terroir-expressive Grower Champagne, we take pride in knowing red-hot producers as thoroughly as possible, but life doesn’t offer enough opportunities when it comes to the top wines of Chartogne-Taillet. These parcel-specific Champagnes are bottled in painfully small quantities, and some of them, like “Les Couarres,” have only been released a handful of times. Although I’ve only tasted two releases of this rare cuvée, I’ve discovered wines of pure, soulful, supernatural energy which has fortified my belief that Chartogne-Taillet exists at the pinnacle of the wildly competitive Grower movement right now.
Aside from being a student of the near-mythical Anselme Selosse and the only bonafide grower-producer in the ancient village of Merfy, Champagne luminary Peter Liem’s believes there may be no producer in the entire region “who feels a greater sense of obligation to preserve his vineyard’s past than Alexandre Chartogne.” His barrel-vinified Champagnes are so consistently unique, terroir-driven, and impeccably nuanced, and if quantities for today’s 2016 weren’t so limited I’d selfishly hoard a case to myself. But in the spirit of fair play, I’m only taking a single bottle home and allowing up to six for you.
When Alexandre Chartogne took over his family’s 300+-year-old grape growing operation in 2006, he had mightily big shoes to fill, but he came well prepared: Having learned directly alongside cult Champagne legend Anselme Selosse (whom he calls his ‘wine father’), natural farming, terroir specificity, and minimalist yet masterful winemaking were fresh on his mind. It also helps that all of his parcels are confined to the historic village of Merfy, just northwest of Reims, an area that has produced wines of renown since the beginning of the Middle Ages. Because of his dedicated quest to revive these ancient micro-terroirs, he has extracted pure, one-with-nature Champagnes that make for a transcendental experience. One taste is all you’ll need to forever commit Chartogne-Taillet to memory.
In the “Les Couarres” vineyard—a microscopic, calcareous-sand parcel in western Merfy—Alexandre farms with an all-natural mindset by avoiding any chemicals/synthetics and removing mechanization. Plowing is done by horse and his vines never experience the cold touch of metal, only hands. After manually harvesting his Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in 2016, the precious juice was pressed into neutral French barrels and allowed to ferment (varietally separate) via ambient yeasts and then mature until July of 2017. Following, the wines were blended and transferred into bottle sans filtration where they aged on lees for over 40 months. They were disgorged in January of 2021 with a judicious dosage of five grams.
NOTE: The back label only displays Pinot Noir, however, this is a misprint. The 2016 vintage is a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir. Furthermore, “Les Couarres” is not to be confused with Chartogne-Taillet’s “Couarres Château” a strikingly different Champagne from an adjacent vineyard.
This 2016 “Les Couarres” is bursting with finesse, tense layers, and broad-sweeping energy that’s accompanied by an intense core of pulverized minerality. The fruit is taut and nervy at first but give the wine some air (flared tulip or all-purpose stems) and it’ll unwind to reveal gorgeously sublime aromatics like green and red apple, citrus blossoms, white pear, Rainier cherry, ginger, blood orange peel, crushed stone, and dried peach. The palate is poised, intense, and laser-sharp yet great depth lurks beneath each layer. Few Champagnes communicate this much energy and terroir, and by my second glass, I found myself comparing it to Vilmart’s top vintage bottlings. This is premium stuff, and a beautiful example of Chartogne’s ability to transfer the nuances of his unique terroir into the glass. Enjoy now and over the next five years.
