2019 Laborde Champagne - Les Beaux Lieux Blanc de Blancs
Regular price $82.00
New Champagne grower-producer alert! Delphine Laborde’s family has farmed grapes and made wine in the town of Nogent l’Abbesse, 10 kilometers east of Reims, since at least the French Revolution. Delphine earned degrees in agriculture and oenology and then worked for Bollinger and Veuve Clicquot before returning to Nogent l’Abbesse to create Champagne Laborde in 2017. She and her Burgundian husband, Pierre-Emmanuel, now organically farm 5 hectares comprising 16 parcels, 95% of which are chardonnay vines. The couple released their first wines in 2023.
'Les Beaux Lieux' comes from half a hectare of sélection massale* chardonnay vines planted in the 1970s on chalky subsoil covered by clay and limestone. This bottling is from the outstanding 2019 vintage. Spontaneous fermentation was followed by eight months of élevage, both in stainless steel tanks, and then four years of aging on the lees in bottle. This vintage was disgorged in November 2024 with a dosage of 3 grams/liter (Extra Brut). Our Emperor club members are fortunate to enjoy one of the 1,415 bottles produced!
The wine is high-toned and taut, with citrus and white flowers. It is super vivid, expressive, and long. Its obvious and delightfully elegant application is as an aperitif, perhaps with a triple-crème cheese. Or drink it with sea bass, scallops, or, for a special brunch treat, soft-scrambled eggs with truffle.
We prefer to drink high-quality sparkling wines from a standard white wine glass or all-purpose (“AP” in the restaurant biz) wine glass rather than from a flute, as the aromas come through better in a wider stem. But do what makes you happy!
* Sélection massale (massale selection) is a traditional method of creating new vines from cuttings of existing vines, typically from a vigneron’s own vineyards, rather than from genetically uniform vine material purchased from a nursery. The idea is that the vigneron takes cuttings from a variety of her best, usually older vines, thus preserving the particular and varied genetic character of her vineyards.