Coeur de Cuvée Brut Premier Cru 2006

A blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay grown on 50-year-old vines in a single plot in Rilly-la-Montagne in Montagne de Reims. The wine is made and ages in 228-liter oak barrels for the first through third transfers and ages for a total of some 10 months before bottling without malolactic fermentation to preserve the sharpness of the acidity. The wine ages on the lees in the bottle for around six years (this was disgorged in September 2013). The year 2006 was a generous one for Montagne de Reims and produced grapes that had a balanced acidity and ripe fruit.
The bouquet of this Champagne has a lovely complexity and immediately shows off the use of wood through the intensity of the notes of dried fruit and spicy cookies. There is also a veil of honey and in the finish ripe tropical fruit and pan brioche. The mouthfeel has body and creaminess along with a discreet, non-citrus acidity which extends the vanilla softness of figs and dates, lightening the finish and giving it a pleasing length.

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