Chartogne-Taillet Champagne Hors-Serie 2020 750ml

Chartogne’s 2020 Blanc de Blancs Hors Série is showing superbly. It opens with a deep bouquet of orange zest, ripe pear and white blossoms mingling with lemon confit. Full-bodied and concentrated, the wine retains striking vitality, with a generous core of fruit enlivened by an incisive spine of acidity and a pronounced chalky signature. Discerning readers will recall that this cuvée hails from a selection of sun-soaked parcels in Avize, primarily situated on the lower slopes with shallow soils, and is vinified exclusively in oak.

• 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.