Description
Champagne Saint-Chamant, Blanc de Blancs Millésime
Rare is the chance we get to offer a vintage Champagne from Saint-Chamant because they are painstakingly handmade, aged for an exceedingly long time, and released in small waves. All that remains true for today’s exquisite 2011, except a somber note is attached: Last year, after seven decades of crafting ultra-traditional Champagne, Christian Coquillette, the legend of Épernay, passed away. And while his hand-disgorged Grand Cru millésimes were consistently among my favorite price-to-quality Champagnes, his son Stéphane has ensured the flame of his legacy will keep burning white-hot.
As always, today’s limited 2011 Blanc de Blancs from Grand Cru Chouilly was manually disgorged to order, and has just arrived stateside. If you haven’t yet tried one of these tailor-made beauties, we guarantee you’ll become completely transfixed with Saint-Chamant’s authenticity and rich, old-school style. In fact, I have no problem crowning it one of the finest Champagnes of the vintage. Cheers to a legend!
After taking over from his parents in 1950, Monsieur Christian Coquillette, spent a lifetime handcrafting traditional wines from his family’s estate vines without pause. His winery’s plain façade in the Champagne epicenter of Épernay is unobtrusive, and perfectly conceals the gem that makes this operation run: The ancient wine caves that snake underground for thousands of feet. A longtime disciple of tradition, he made sure every wine slowly matured in his ancient wine caves, and each one was individually disgorged by his own gnarled hand. To say that Christian Coquillette was an unwavering champion of “old-school” authenticity, or that his vintage releases rank among my all-time favorite values, is a vast understatement. He will be greatly missed in the world of fine wine. That said, his son Stéphane, who grew up learning by his side, has taken the torch and is raising it confidently.
Legacy isn’t all that Monsieur Coquillette had going on: terroir also played a huge role. His Chardonnay vines are located in Grand Cru village of Chouilly, which rests over the “Roche Mere,” or mother rock, a massive limestone formation that extends deeply into the earth. That’s where today’s manually harvested grapes came from and back at the winery, they saw a fermentation in stainless steel. After bottling, today’s 2011 aged on its fine lees well past the AOC requirements—seven years longer!—which makes for a flavor profile and quality that stays with you. While most wineries now use machines for the process of remuage, Saint-Chamant still riddles their wines by hand and marks each movement with a sliver of chalk. And finally, when it comes time to leave the cold security blanket that is his ancient cellar, the wines are disgorged and labeled by hand. The result is an experience that truly transcends mere words—it is magic!
As always, Saint-Chamant delivers a remarkable, perfectly mature Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs that shatters just about any competition in terms of authenticity, deliciousness, and value—it epitomizes everything I love about Champagne both in taste and tradition. This 2011 pours a vibrant straw-yellow in the glass and tiny, compact bubbles race upward to break through an extremely fine mouse. On the nose, you’ll discover nuanced fruits like ripe green apples, yellow pear, quince, lemon curd, and pineapple alongside savory herbs, pastry, honey, toasted almonds, chalk, and crushed oyster shell. The palate is immense, rich, and inviting with deep yet pronounced layers of creamy fruit and minerals. It’s got the energy to last a decade longer should you want to track its evolution, but I strongly suggest you open one soon and tip your hat to the legend that is Christian Coquillette.
