Larmandier-Bernier - 'Longitude' Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Extra Brut MV

[Larmandier-Bernier sereverades under Nobelmiddagen 2024]

Ursprung

Historiskt, sedan början av 1900-talet, hade denna cuvée gått under namnet "Blanc de Blancs". "Longitude" kommer uteslutande från Chardonnay-druvorna som odlas på Côte des Blancs: Vertus, Oger, Avize, Cramant, som bildar en linje nära den 4:e meridianen.

Druvor

Chardonnay

Dosage

3 gram/liter

Reserveviner

Denna icke-vintage cuvée innehåller 40 % av vinerna som kommer från gårdens perpetual reserve  som startade 2004.

Tasting note

Based on the 2020 vintage and disgorged in November 2022, the new release of Larmandier's NV Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Longitude wafts from the glass with aromas of sweet citrus fruit, fresh pastry, green apple and flowers. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, its satiny attack segues into a racy, broad-shouldered mid-palate, concluding with a chalky finish.

In the 1990s, Pierre Larmandier and his wife Sophie began to work the soils of their vineyards and abandoned the use of herbicides, moving toward organic and then biodynamic farming. They have had few imitators: "I thought I could be five years ahead of the others in giving up on chemical farming," Pierre observed to me, "but I never imagined that I might be fifty years ahead!" Pierre's father had always advocated picking mature fruit, and with the new farming methods, the wines became almost too concentrated and tightly wound, he relates. So, changes in the winery followed suit: fermentation in wood—foudres, demi-muids and barrels (today, mainly from Stockinger)—instead of stainless steel, and the use of ambient instead of selected yeasts. Today, Larmandier-Bernier numbers among the Côte de Blanc's—and Champagne's—finest estates, and with some 19 hectares of vines, their wines are happily not as hard to find as those released by the region's smallest micro-producers. All these recent and forthcoming releases are warmly recommended, and I'll be writing more about the estate in a future issue.

Larmandier-Bernier numbers among the Côte de Blanc's—and Champagne's—finest estates. Based in Vertus, the Larmandier family farm organically and harvest late, vinifying the resulting wines in wood. The result is vinous, elegantly muscular Champagnes that are concentrated but precise. In a region that still produces far too many meager, brittle wines, Larmander-Bernier reminds us of the plenitude and texture of which great Champagne is capable. The range begins with two non-vintage Blanc de Blancs: Latitude, broad and charming; and Longitude, more chiseled and incisive. Next come three vintage cuvées: Vieille Vigne de Levant, from Cramant; Les Chemins d’Avize, from the eponymous village; and the Terre de Vertus. Two perfumed rosé de saignée cuvées complement the portfolio, now joined by small quantities of still red and white Côteaux Champenois. As remarkable for their consistency as their quality, any wine that bears this family’s label is well worth seeking out

While the COVID-19 crisis postponed my planned spring visit to Larmandier-Bernier in Vertus, as this report was going to press, all their latest disgorgements arrived for tasting in my Beaune office. A report on those wines, which I eagerly anticipate tasting, will appear as a stand-alone article shortly, accompanied by a deeper dive into this important producer's practices.

As I've written before, Larmandier-Bernier numbers among the Côte de Blanc's—and Champagne's—finest estates. Based in Vertus, the Larmandier family farms organically and harvest late, vinifying the resulting wines in wood. The result is vinous, elegantly muscular Champagnes that are concentrated but precise. In a region that still produces far too many meager, brittle wines, Larmander-Bernier reminds us of the plenitude and texture of which great Champagne is capable. The range begins with two non-vintage Blanc de Blancs: Latitude, broad and charming; and Longitude, more chiseled and incisive. Next come three vintage cuvées: Vieille Vigne de Levant, from Cramant; Les Chemins d’Avize, from the eponymous village; and the Terre de Vertus. Two perfumed rosé de saignée cuvées complement the portfolio, now joined by small quantities of still red and white Côteaux Champenois. This year sees the release of a one-off Blanc de Noirs, produced from grapes deemed too ripe for rosé production in the 2015 vintage.

It's been 30 years now that Pierre and Sophie Larmandier have directed Larmandier-Bernier, which has been one of my favorite Champagne growers in the Côte des Blancs for many years. Biodynamic since 2004, the family cultivates a total of 15 hectares in the grand and premier cru villages of Vertus, Oger, Avize, Cramant and Chouilly. The grapes are picked at a high ripeness level and fermented with indigenous yeast in smaller and larger oak barrels including foudres but also in stainless steel. In a vintage such as 2009, some wines like the Vieille Vigne du Levant can be entirely fermented in oak, where it is kept until July before it is bottled unfiltered for the prise de mousse. All the cuvées from L-B are connected to specific terroirs and thus represent different characters. Latitude, which is predominantly from Vertus, is more round and charming compared the Longitude, which comes from purely chalky soils of several origins and delivers a more tensioned and structured cuvée with a chalky expression. The Longitude and Latitude wines are non-vintaged, but the wines with a designated origin on the label are vintaged. Terre de Vertus comes from the poorer chalk soils north of Vertus and is full of energetic vibration. The two top wines of the domaine come from old vines in Avize (Les Chemins d'Avize, of which the 2011 is amazing!) and from up to 90-year-old vines in Cramant, which deliver the impressively structured and tensioned Vieille Vigne du Levant. From the clayey southern part of Vertus, the Larmandier family produces a fine red Pinot Noir Coteaux Champenois as well as the remarkable Rosé de Saignée Champagne, which contains some Pinot Gris as well and is worth a try!

Robert Parker Wne Advocate

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