Description
Champagne Jean Vesselle, “B2C” Grand Cru
While “B3” is enjoying its fourth vintage, this 2014 marks the limited debut of “B2C” which is an abbreviation for Blanc de Blancs de Chouilly. Located in the northern reaches of Champagne’s chalky Côte des Blancs, home to the most expensive Chardonnay bottlings, this Chouilly cuvée wasn’t crafted previously because the Vesselle’s didn’t own land here! However, Chouilly is where Delphine’s husband, David, was born and his own family farmed here for generations. Accordingly, in 2014, his father retired and gifted him 1.5 hectares of heirloom vines. The Vesselles then decided to craft it identically to their “B3” bottling, and thus, a friendly competition of husband vs. wife and Bouzy vs. Chouilly was born.
The Vesselles newly acquired Chouilly vines are farmed like all of their raw material: with the utmost attention to detail and strict adherence to organic practices. The Chardonnay was harvested by hand and the grapes fermented on natural, airborne yeasts in used French oak barrels over many months. The resulting wine was then transferred into bottle, where it aged in their subterranean chalk cellars for nearly six years. It was disgorged in April of 2021 without any dosage, making it a “brut nature.” However, roughly 1.5 grams of natural residual sugar remains. Only 1700 bottles were produced.
Because I want everyone to come to their own conclusion when determining the winner of the showdown, I’m finding it hard to write impartial tasting notes. Still, there’s superb distinction to each cuvée and the overarching one in “B2C” is its soft, creamy, and toasty core that’s dominated by a ripe and dried army of white/yellow orchard fruits. I hesitate to call a Brut Nature a luxurious wine but there is a certain fullness to each layer that saturated my palate before being carried away by a cleansing acidity. The precision and chiseled detail here is remarkable and I was struck by just how “pretty” and floral and inviting it was throughout. I suggest serving it identically to the “B3” and watching the fireworks fly as these two beauties shapeshift over an entire evening. Cheers!
