GROWER CHAMPAGNE CLUB
JULY 2021
LE MAGIC FROM LE MESNIL-SUR-OGER
Located in the Côtes des Blancs of the Marne, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger was one of the villages that was (finally) elevated to Grand Cru status by the (now obsolete) Echelle des Crus scale in 1985. For the forty years prior, the Oger was agonizingly stuck at 99, just 1 point shy of that elusive top shelf status despite it’s local reputation for perhaps being the best in the world.
Le Mesnil-sur-Oger has long preserved it’s very own unique clone of Chardonnay known for it’s distinctly piercing and assertive aromatic profile. The vines themselves all grow between 160 and 220 meters and the wines have consistently proven their ability to evolve perfectly through time, elevating them once again above the rest. Salon ‘Le Mesnil’ and Krug’s ‘Clos de Mesnil’ from this tiny village are heralded as being the very best Champagnes in the world. This is, of course, subjective, but there are very limited experts in the position to even argue the point. Gratefully there are still a few truly wonderful, more approachable, and actually findable wines from this very special locale as well.
Cheers! – Kevin Wardell, July, 2021
PIERRE MONCUIT MILLESIME
BLANC DE BLANCS
EXTRA BRUT
Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Champagne, France 2010
The Moncuit family traces their grape growing lineage in the Côtes des Blancs village of Le Mesnil-sur-Ogerback to the late 19th century and their winemaking to the early 1950s. Siblings Nicole and Yves Moncuit have been running the show since 1977 and are currently producing some of the best wines in the estate’s history. Moncuit’s wines are all single vintage bottlings that are all about purity and excel at expressing the nuances of a given year. This vineyard is on the region’s classic chalky limestone and with an average vine age of 60 years. The Moncuit family doesn’t own a single oak barrel so any aging of the wine occurs either in tank or in bottle.
What a decade can do! Such lush and elegant beauty, as creamy and silky as Straus vanilla soft-serve, but with Chablis-like minerality and toasted brioche backbone. Meyer lemon marmalade on toast with creme fraiche, lemon meringue topped with toasted macadamia nuts. This wine has a macerated green apple b-side and delightful tertiary notes of the classic confectionery “caramel creams,” but with no fatigue in the acid department. All the notes you could want from a vintage Champagne, and at a hard to find screaming value.
100% Chardonnay from 2010 vintage, 3.5 g/l dosage. 3+ years Sur latte, 100% Malo. Disgorged November 2017.
PIERRE PÉTERS
‘CUVÉE DE RÉSERVE’
BLANC DE BLANCS BRUT
Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Champagne NV
The Moncuit family traces their grape growing lineage in the Côtes des Blancs village of Le Mesnil-sur-Ogerback to the late 19th century and their winemaking to the early 1950s. Siblings Nicole and Yves Moncuit have been running the show since 1977 and are currently producing some of the best wines in the estate’s history.
Moncuit’s wines are all single vintage bottlings that are all about purity and excel at expressing the nuances of a given year. This vineyard is on the region’s classic chalky limestone and with an average vine age of 60 years. The Moncuit family doesn’t own a single oak barrel so any aging of the wine occurs either in tank or in bottle.
What a decade can do! Such lush and elegant beauty, as creamy and silky as Straus vanilla soft-serve, but with Chablis-like minerality and toasted brioche backbone. Meyer lemon marmalade on toast with creme fraiche, lemon meringue topped with toasted macadamia nuts. This wine has a macerated green apple b-side and delightful tertiary notes of the classic confectionery “caramel creams,” but with no fatigue in the acid department. All the notes you could want from a vintage Champagne, and at a hard to find screaming value.
100% Chardonnay from 2010 vintage, 3.5 g/l dosage. 3+ years Sur latte, 100% Malo. Disgorged November 2017.