2008 Larmandier-Bernier Non Dose Terre de Vertus

The 2008 Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Terre de Vertus is drop-dead gorgeous. A wine of intense minerality and pure cut, the Terre de Vertus dazzles from start to finish. Grapefruit, mint, wild flowers and anise jump out in a wine that is totally alive and constantly changing in the glass. Hints of almonds, hazelnuts and dried flowers all add complexity to the finish. The Terre de Vertus emerges from Les Barillers and Les Faucherets, and was bottled with no dosage. This bottle was disgorged on June 2012.

Light yellow-gold. Vibrant honeydew and orchard fruit flavors are braced by chalky minerals and gingery spice. Taut, linear and focused on entry, then fleshier in the middle, offering sappy pear and melon flavors with complicating notes of anise, iodine and honeysuckle. Emphatic minerality sharpens the finish, which clings with excellent clarity and persistence. No excess fat here, but this Champagne is in no way austere.

Larmandier-Bernier’s non-dosage 2008 Extra Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs Terre de Vertus – initially raised in a combination of small barrels and foudres – is both salty and overtly chalky, and mingles freshly milled and lightly toasted grain with fresh lemon and apple on the nose and a juicy palate. Bittersweet iris perfume and a greenhouse-like amalgamation of leafing and flowering things generally add intrigue. The alliance of seductively silken texture with refreshing and stimulating brightness of ripe acids is not only notable but, as it turns out, impressively typical for this estate. I suspect that this fine value will both fascinate and delight over the next 3-5 years. Pierre and Sophie Larmandier farm 40 hectares morsellated into an even larger number of parcels in Vertus and villages on either side, as well as in the grand cru quartet of Avize, Oger, Chouilly and Cramant. Among their notable innovations is the use of helicopter to deliver biodynamic sprays to such a large surface on the appointed “root days.” The precision, refinement, and nuance achieved in their wines are exemplary. A very small share of foudre and barrel is employed for the non-vintage “Latitude” and “Longitude” bottlings simply so as to have a means of “seasoning” that wood before it gets transferred to the vintage program, where tanks are in the minority. The Larmandiers believe in minimal settling of juice after pressing, and all of their wines get close to, if not longer than, one year of elevage before going to bottle for the secondary fermentation, though after that, the time until disgorgement and (six months later) release varies widely according to cuvee. Normally, each non-vintage wine includes reserve contingents from the two previous vintages. Importer: Polaner Selections, Mt. Kisko, NY; tel. (914) 244-0404