Tarlant Champagne Brut Nature “Bam!” NV 750ml

Rated 94 – The current release of the Tarlant family’s “BAM” non-vintage Blanc de Blancs is from the exquisite base year of 2012, with the wine finished with around fifty percent reserve wines from the dedicated solera created for this bottling several years ago. The vins clairs are barre-lfermented and do not go through malo, with the wine having spent more than ten years aging sur lattes and this release was disgorged in June of 2023 and is, of course, non-dosé. It is made from a cépages of twenty-seven percent each of pinot blanc and arbanne, coupled with forty-six percent petit meslier. The wine’s aromatic constellation is outstanding, offering up a bright and complex 185 blend of apple, peach, raw almond, chalky soil tones, bread dough, just a touch of buttery oak and a lovely topnote of white flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, full-bodied and elegant, with a superb core of fruit, fine mineral undertow and grip, a superb spine of integrated acidity, elegant mousse and a long, complex and impeccably balanced finish. As I have mentioned several times in the past, I would have more of an affinity for non-dosé bottlings if more vignerons aged their wines ten years on their fine lees before releasing them, so that the acids do not require buffering with dosage. This is excellent! 2025-2050+. – View from the Cellar

• Country: France
• Region: Champagne
• Size: 750ml

Varietal

Champagne Blend

The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn’t unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as ‘blanc de blanc’, meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or ‘blanc de noir’, which is made solely with Pinot Noir.