Description
Champagne Vincent Couche, “Eclipsia”
When Vincent Couche’s liaison sidled up to us last month and hinted that we could be the first to offer a cuvée that’s never seen the light of day in America, we were thrilled, honored, and even a bit apprehensive. Why? Because we first introduced you to Couche via multiple offerings of his 1999 Dégorgement Tardif, among the most texturally profound, vibrant, and savory vintage Champagnes we’ve ever tasted. So, obviously, we knew anything else would be an exceedingly hard act to follow. Then we tasted today’s “Eclipsia” and it evoked the same visceral reactions.
Admittedly, it’s not 20+ years old, but it’s still a pulse-quickening, deeply layered, soul-stirringly pure Champagne that wears its Certified Biodynamic badge with pride. A heavy blend of Pinot Noir from the 2017 vintage with a healthy dose of Chardonnay from the famous satellite village of Montgueux, this resoundingly pure and impressively nuanced Champagne is akin to a child prodigy. Your jaw will hit the table once you taste it, and with a couple more years of bottle age, it’ll extend to the floor. Life doesn’t often provide the opportunity to taste a brilliant Champagne from a biodynamic superstar before anyone else in the United States—take advantage of it!
It was Vincent Couche’s mother who inspired his passion for vineyard work, especially when it came to maintaining a natural, chemical-free ecosystem. As such, he has spent every waking hour over the past two decades ensuring his wines are free of additives. Because he refuses unnatural methods at every step of the process—from eschewing “-cides” to banning chaptalization or sulfur during fermentation to only using gravity to move the wine—Vincent Couche is leading the charge in both the organic and grower Champagne movements. Their importer even told us he is the first producer in Champagne to be Certified Biodynamic in both the vineyard and cellar!
Couche’s fruit comes from two choice villages: Buxeuil (Pinot Noir) in the Côte des Bar and the outlier village of Montgueux (Chardonnay), where you’ll find legendary Jacques Lassaigne bottling some all-time great Blanc de Blancs. Vines from the latter are perched on an expansive chalky rise that looks down at the farmland below. It’s predominantly planted to Chardonnay, and the wonderfully ripe grapes grown here add immense texture and vibrancy to “Eclipsia,” despite contributing just 16% to the final blend. Back at Vincent’s cellar in Buxeuil, a fermentation (including malolactic) born of ambient yeasts was carried out in a combination of stainless steel and old French barrels without any sulfur. The base vintage for “Eclipsia” is 2017, although Couche also incorporated a portion of older reserve wines. Today’s batch matured on lees for a couple of years before disgorgement. It was topped off with a six-gram/liter dosage and allowed to relax in his cellar until the Spring of 2021.
When it comes to Couche’s “Eclipsia,” there’s no need for long, drawn-out, overly complex tasting notes. This is among the purest, most honest Champagnes on the market right now and the only “manipulation” here is the light dosage which makes it all the more enjoyable to drink. After allowing the vigorous mousse to subside in an all-purpose stem, the nose erupts with fresh, live-wire aromas of crisp white pear, Mirabelle plum, red and yellow apple skin, redcurrant, damp herb, crushed chalk, seashell, blanched almonds, lime blossoms, lees, iodine, and acacia. The palate is soft, expansive, layered, and edge-less; just a vivid snapshot of Champagne’s rich, unadulterated terroir. Please do enjoy a couple of bottles now, but make sure a couple also get squirreled away so you can experience more savory, nutty components over the next 2-3 years. Cheers!
