When it comes to sparkling wine, we fall very very hard for mineral, incisive Blanc des Blancs. The chalkiness, the electrifying acidity, the sense that you’re practically drinking the region’s limestone soil. We can’t get enough of it. With their Cramant Grand Cru Blanc des Blancs, the Larmandier family ratchets those qualities up to 11. This stunning bottle–from one of the most important villages in the world for Chardonnay, unimpeded by even a drop of dosage–may just be Champagne in its most thrilling form. And as an added bonus, it’s proof positive of one of the unspoken rules among Champagne aficionados: that a great bottle really only starts to strut its stuff a year after disgorging. Now two years out from its disgorgement, there’s textural richness and more fruit-backed depth to round out the mineral core, and it's all the better for it. It’s the most exciting form of Champagne just entering its most exciting drinking window. So don’t hesitate; go deep!
It’s not really a surprise that a bottle of Chardonnay as deft as this comes from Maison Guy Larmandier. After all, the family’s nine hectares of holdings are composed almost entirely of the variety. They’ve got a stable of vineyards to make any grower blush with envy, based entirely in Champagne’s Côte des Blancs, and composed exclusively of Premier and Grand Cru holdings. For their Brut Zero Blanc des Blancs, they zero in on Cramant, their most cherished village. Here, the region’s iconic Kimmeridgian limestone soil dominates, imbuing Chardonnay grown on its gentle slopes with electric tension. Whereas neighboring villages like Avize and Mesnil are famed for the power they impart to Chardonnay grown there, Cramant is like Champagne’s Puligny, emphasizing elegance and purity.
Guy Larmandier founded his eponymous estate in 1976. That places him firmly at the beginning of the grower Champagne movement, one of the first to stop selling his fruit to the major houses and begin bottling under his own name. From the beginning, precision and a deft touch marked his wines out, with fermentations taking place in stainless steel tanks and malolactic blocked to retain freshness. If you wanted to experience the lightning thrill of great Côte des Blancs bubbles, Guy’s address was one of the first you had to look to. Guy sadly passed in 2000, but his wife Colette and daughter Marie-Helene continue the business to this day.
This edition of the Guy Larmandier Grand Cru Cramant Blanc des Blancs Brut Zero takes 2017 as its base vintage, and it aged five years sur latte before disgorgement in 2022. While two years in bottle isn’t significant age per se, it’s just enough time to allow such a tightly coiled beast to unwind and impress with an even broader range of flavors. Definitely pour this into all-purpose white wine glasses to fully appreciate the aromatic spectrum on display here–pulverized chalk, seaspray, gunflint, lemon zest, white flowers, and oyster shells. Creamy orchard fruit and raw almond nuttiness round out the piercing minerality. On the palate, it’s all about incisive cut, the rocky tension carrying things through to a minutes-long finish. It’s tense and electric, but never punishing, just enough concentration and fruit to keep things refreshing instead of austere. Alongside some oysters or simple seafood, a bottle is liable to disappear far more quickly than you anticipated. Better stock up to be safe!
