Doyard Champagne Extra Brut Premier Cru Clos de L’abbaye 2019 750ml

Hailing from a 0.36-hectare walled vineyard that was planted in 1956 just behind the winery in Vertus, the 2019 Extra-Brut Premier Cru Clos de l’Abbaye was disgorged in June 2024 with two grams per liter dosage. “It’s a very chalky terroir, and it has been farmed organically since 2008,” explains Doyard. What makes the resulting wine unique is that the 2019 vintage includes approximately 15% to 20% “muscaté” selections of Chardonnay, which brings mildly musky aromatics to the wine. Soaring from the glass with a complex bouquet of peach, grapefruit zest, pear, dried white flowers and walnut, it is concentrated and deep, with considerable flavor intensity, bright acids and a persistent, saline finish. Vinified entirely in barrels, ranging from three to 15 years old, only first and second pressing juices are used, accounting for about 60% of the total juice extract. It’s a particular highlight this year, which Guillaume Doyard calls the finest vintage since he took the reins at the estate in 2017.

• Country: France
• Region: Champagne
• Size: 750ml
• Alcohol by Vol: 12.0%

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.