2008 Varnier Fanniere Grand Brut

Pale yellow. Powerful aromas and flavors of fresh tropical fruits, honey and gingery spices, with a toasty quality in the background. Rich and seamless on the palate, offering intense flavors of peach nectar, papaya and candied ginger. Finishes long and spicy, with a lingering note of toasty lees and excellent persistence. Disgorged in June, 2014

Varnier's 2008 Brut Grand Vintage rounds out this stellar collection of new releases. An old-vine Cuvée from vines in Cramant and Avize, the 2008 is all about intense verticality and structure. Perhaps a bit less polished than some of the other wines in the range, the 2008 remains very young and in need of bottle age. The flavors and textures remain boldly sketched and authoritative, though, which makes me think all that is needed here is time. Intense graphite, smoke, apricot and savory herbs wrap around the insistent finish. This is another superb wine from Denis Varnier. Disgorged June 2014. Dosage is 7 grams per liter.

The 2008 Brut Grand Vintage is 100% Chardonnay from different Grand Cru villages from the Côte de Blancs. I tasted the wines in December 2014, but for some obscure reasons, the wines remained in the database and were never published. It's sold out today (try the 2009 and 2010, which are available now), but this was my finding. Vanilla and brioche aromas on the nose lead to a full-bodied, elegant, intense and well-structured Champagne with a mineral, but slightly drying aftertaste. Promising. ||Based in Avize (Côte des Blancs), Denis Varnier produces an excellent range of highly elegant, very well focused and fresh, yet perfectly balanced and round, non-oaked Champagnes. These are produced not in the shadow, but virtually on eye level with his widely adored neighbors Anselme Selosse and Erick de Sousa. Varnier-Fannière is a small property, but with excellent parcels adding up to 30,000 Chardonnay vine stocks or four-hectare grands crus sites, most of them located in the villages of Cramant and Oger. Denis' single vineyard cuvée, St-Denis from Avize, is impressive, but I prefer the silky textured Cuvée Jean Fannière due to its freshness, finesse and elegance. Readers should also taste the Brut Rosé. Jun 16, www.robertparker.com, Drink: 2016-2020