NV Jean-Pierre Bouchard Brut Blanc de Noir Inflorescence

Bouchard’s NV Brut Blanc de Noirs Inflourescence Val Vilaine L10 delivers alluringly aromatic and luscious white peach, red raspberry, tangerine and grapefruit suffused with chalk on a silken and succulent palate, culminating in a vibrantly bright and exuberant finish. This faintly Riesling-reminiscent, intensely fruity (though thoroughly dry) cuvee ought to remain delicious for at least the next 2-3 years. Considering the passion with which – when we met three years ago – young Cedric Bouchard was still expressing his desire to showcase unjustly neglected Cotes des Bar by means of single-vineyard still wines (not to mention considering how impressively successful these were, at least aesthetically speaking), I was a bit surprised and disappointed when I showed up at his cellars this summer to learn that he had given up on Coteaux Champenoise after “I got tired of trying to explain them to people. For me,” he adds, “(making them) was an experience to understand and know my vines better.” Certainly, Bouchard’s attention to how vines and wine adapt to their soil and terrain has not flagged. And these Champagnes are designed to carry a relatively low-pressure stream of CO2, helping to emphasize their status as wine and at the same time moderate finished alcohol. From 2012, Bouchard has taken over two more parcels of his father’s – one of which always dominated his Inflourescence line – and he feels that the potential of these sites is so strong that rather than continue cropping them at around 40 hectoliters per hectare (already extremely small by Champagne standards), he’s going to start targeting 25 hectoliters per hectare as he does with his other wines, and bottle everything under the “Roses de Jeanne” label, which began with the first vintage from Ursules (a plot his father turned over to him precisely because its yields were naturally so uncooperatively low!). So we must, I fear, forever bid farewell to “intro-level” Bouchard Champagne! Asked how such low yields are going to work on a vineyard that ripens as quickly as Val Vilaine – the basis of the aforementioned Inflourescence bottlings – Bouchard points to what he’s learned about pruning in ways that retard the accumulation of sugar, and also about the need to harvest earlier to preserve acidity. So far – as with the still wines that he has now discontinued – Bouchard hasn’t put a foot wrong that I am aware. And there are nowadays three pairs of feet laboring in the Bouchard vineyards, as he and his wife of four years have recently been joined by a cousin who formerly worked with Arnaud Mortet in Gevrey. Bouchard has become convinced, incidentally, that methode champenois inherently accentuates any woody characteristics in a cuvee and he utilizes solely tanks. Lot numbers here, by the way, have always indicated the wine’s exclusive vintage of origin. But while Bouchard plans to continue showcasing a single site and vintage with each wine, he now plans – because, as he explains, he can now afford – to give them three or more years sur latte, and will hence be authorized to vintage-date. In fact, the Roses de Jeanne wines from 2008 already bear a tiny inscription on their back labels that one could miss, stating “Millesime 2008.” Importer: Thomas Calder Selections, Paris (with various importers); fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29