[PLEASE NOTE: Due to limited allocation size, we must limit purchases of today’s Benoit Déhu Champagne “La Rue des Noyers” to 6 bottles per customer.]

Benoit Déhu’s family’s estate, Déhu Père et Fils, first began producing wine in 1787. Benoit is the eighth generation to work the these same ancient vines, planted in limestone in the village of Fossoy on the western border of the Vallée de la Marne. Despite an indulgent life split between Paris and Champagne and a promising career with Bollinger, Benoit longed to return home to his family estate. Upon his return to Fossoy, he quickly transitioned the family’s vines to organic and biodynamic viticulture. In 2011, he sliced off a small, and particularly special 1.7-hectare parcel of Pinot Meunier planted on limestone for his own personal label. This tiny parcel is farmed in strict accordance with biodynamic principles. There are no herbicides or pesticides and no tractors; just hours of manual labor and the assistance of one plow and a horse named Violette! Following harvest, Benoit ferments and ages his wines in barrels made from French oak harvested from forests around the vineyard. The result is an inimitably terroir-driven and extremely refined Champagne.

As has become typical of many grower-produced Champagnes, this wine is based on a single vintage (2011) but doesn’t say so anywhere on its label. With three years of barrel aging and three more years of bottle age following its 2014 disgorgement, Déhu’s “La Rue des Noyers” is in peak form today. Clear and pale green/gold in the glass with an extremely precise ‘bead’ (effervescence), this wine whispers an intoxicating song of meyer lemon, raw hazelnut, brioche, wild herbs, white flowers, and savory mineral aromas atop a firm foundation. This is an overtly pure and focused wine whose fruit asserts itself most prominently in the wine’s impressive medium-bodied palate. This wine is an intellectual journey fresh from the bottle, but I found it especially pleasurable after it was decanted for 24 hours and served alongside my fiancée’s superb Pork Schnitzel. Many of the finest “new school” grower Champagnes serve double duty as phenomenal ‘still’ wines after the bubbles dissipate—and this beauty is a prime example. This is a deeply satisfying wine today, but its bright acidity and austere minerality tell me it will only continue to evolve nicely for another 5-7 years. Moreover, Déhu has become a globally recognized name in Champagne and it’s always a pleasure to keep a few bottles of a esteemed producer’s first release. Especially at this fair price, this is a winner!