Domaine Vincey Champagne Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru “Auge Mesnil sur Oger” 2020 750ml

In the context of Domaine Vincey’s portfolio, the 2020 Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Auge, issuing from a flat, northeast-facing plot, is the most chiseled wine. Planted in 1971 to massal selection Chardonnay, with about 50 centimeters of clay topsoil over chalk, it delivers one of the more compact and linear wines in the range, revealing aromas of elderflower, grapefruit, pine nuts and mirabelle plum mingling with oyster shell. Medium-bodied and laden with mouthwatering acidity, it’s energetic and precise, concluding with a long, saline finish. Quentin Vincey told me that Auge stays in the fog quite late in the mornings and is one of the last plots they harvest; in other words, it’s a site that truly captures the freshness and precision, and I found much to admire in this wine. It was disgorged in May 2024 without dosage.

• Country: France
• Region: Champagne
• Size: 750ml
• Alcohol by Vol: 13.0%

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.