NV Varnier Fanniere Cuvee de Jean Fanniere Origine

The July 2017 disgorgement of the NV Extra-Brut Cuvée Jean Fannière Origine is still on the market, and it's now beginning to take on some mature overtones, mingling notions of dried fruit, honeycomb and warm biscuits with aromas of peach and citrus. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and elegantly textural, with a delicate pinpoint mousse, lively acids and a saline finish, it's drinking well today.

The bright golden colored NV Cuvée Jean Fannière Origine Extra Brut (LJF013), sourced from 60-year-old Chardonnay vines in Cramant Grand Cru, is a classy aperitif, or fish and seafood fizz for ambitious Champagne lovers. After five years on the lees, this Extra Brut (dosage was three grams) offers a very clear and attractively aromatic, but also pure, complex and refreshing mineral bouquet; it shows aromas of lemon and pineapples mixed with chalky and iodine flavors. Full-bodied and dry on the palate, this is a serious, expressive and tension-filled Champagne with a coolish and refreshing character. It has lots of grip in the stimulatingly mineral finish. There are flavors of citrus fruits with the dust of crushed stones, whereas the oysters yet have to be served. It has a silky texture due to the very fine bubbles.

Polished in feel, the Varnier-Fanniere NV Extra Brut Cuvee de Jean Fanniere Origine Disg. 5/2013 is coolly herbal and almost a bit aloof, its chalky and stony undertone making for a certain austerity, though I can well imagine this blossoming with another six months or more. The finish leaves my mouth minty fresh and cooled; covered in chalk dust; yet somehow also scoured. Mid-palate polish, it seems, doesn’t always signal a soothing finish. This will probably reward return visits for several years. Denis Varnier farms only ten acres of vines but is clearly meticulous and inventive in his efforts to express their potential, which given a high percentage of unusually old vines in the “grand cru” terroirs of Avize and Cramant (with smaller holdings in Oger, and Oiry) should indeed be formidable. Varnier aims for lower-than-usual pressure; he micro-oxygenates his base wines as a means to inter alia reduce the use of sulfur; and he lets them undergo malo-lactic transformation, all techniques that tend toward promoting silken or creamy textures. But the wines I tasted are far from cuddly, displaying plenty of energy and refreshment and in some instances even an austere expression of things mineral. With the exception of the 8% of red wine from Ambonnay purchased to created his rose – which on this occasion I found surprisingly blurry and simple – all of Denis Varnier’s wines are exclusively Chardonnay; but for whatever reason – and although the word “Grand Cru” always appears there – he does not denote “Blanc de Blancs” on their labels. Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300