The Vallée de la Marne is one of the most exciting sub-regions of Champagne right now. Perusing our recent offers from here, which have included culty wines from the likes of Benoit Déhu, Flavien Nowack, and now Jérôme Blin, I can proudly state these are Champagnes that compete with the region’s elite growers.
Over the past few years, Jérôme, equipped with five centuries of family expertise and a firm commitment to organics, ventured out to create his very own Champagne label in the bucolic village of Vincelles. Located between the epicenter of Epernay and west-reaching Château-Thierry, this pure expression of Chardonnay is utterly breathtaking. Organic farming, old vines, oak aging, and low dosage? All checkmarks. As for availability, well, there really isn’t much. I’d venture a guess that we are the only retailers in America to have our hands on this today, and at a phenomenal price to boot. It is the most pristine Chardonnay I’ve tasted from the Marne—it’s unbelievably broad and complex which will introduce an entirely new perspective of what depths Champagne can accomplish in the right hands. Per usual with wines of this nature, I can only offer three per customer; there is really that little available to us, so grab this seamless beauty while you can—you won’t find it elsewhere!
The Blin family has been involved in winemaking since the 1600s and they’ve long since held a presence in Vallée de la Marne. Here in Vincelles, Jérôme’s grandfather was instrumental in establishing the Champagne co-operative H. Blin in 1947 and Jérôme worked there for quite some time before recently branching out to start his own label with a focus on organic and biodynamic practices. In all, Jérôme is responsible for six hectares of vines.
Though most of his vineyards are planted to Meunier (the choice grape in the Marne) and Pinot Noir, he has a small percentage of Chardonnay vines that average 35 years of age, with some pushing 45. Being Certified Organic, all pesticides and and herbicides are eschewed. Following a hand harvest, vinification took place in a combination of oak and stainless steel to create a rich and mineral-driven combination. The wine was transferred into bottle where it aged on its lees for two years (although these grapes all came from the 2013 vintage, law requires three years minimum aging to be labeled as a ‘vintage wine’). Two years in bottle may feel short for Champagne, but it has the complexity of five-plus on the palate. After disgorgement in March of 2016, the wine saw a very light dosage of 5 grams. It is now approaching two additional years of bottle age and is in a gorgeous drinking spot.
“Cuvée Octave” exhibits a concentrated yellow-gold with slight bronzing at its core, though platinum hues on the rim hint at youthfulness. The nose reveals powerful and focused aromatics of yellow apple blossoms, meyer lemon, raw hazelnut, lees, quince, crushed stone, and dried mushroom. It’s wonderfully elegant on the palate with a dense core of yellow fruit backing it up. This doesn’t have the electric shock that can come from Côte des Blancs’ wines; the fruit is slightly riper and rounder and the fine mousse has layers that delicately unfold as minutes pass by. It’s just a breathtaking expression of Chardonnay and a standout bottle from an emerging solo producer. I recommend drinking this in all-purpose white stems (unless you have large open Champagne Flutes—no tall and thin please!) around 55 degrees, but don’t be afraid to let this blow off some carbonation. It’s a joy to drink even as it approaches a ‘still wine.’ If you choose to stow “Cuvée Octave” away, it will kindly reward you over the next 5-7 years. Whenever you do consume, you'll be stunned from start to finish. My only complaint was that smoked salmon gougéres didn’t accompany it. Cheers!
