Jacques Lassaigne Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs La Colline Inspiree NV (750ML)

96 DE / 94 WA

There are lovely, up front, crazy coconut and tropical fruit aromas, along with a bit of spice and tangy barrel-aged oxidative notes. The texture is one of silky perfection. The freshness, the density of the fruit, and the complexity of the ageing create terrific dynamic tension on the palate. This is blended from base wines from 2018 (12 months in barrel on the lees), 2017 (24 months), 2016 (36 months), and 2015 (48 months), and aged on the lees before disgorging in January of 2022 – a superb wine. - Charles Curtis MW, Decanter

A blend of the 2013 and 2012 vintages that was disgorged in March, the NV Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs La Colline Inspiré opens in the glass with aromas of almond paste, citrus oil, crisp green apple and pastry cream, gently framed by its élevage in barrel. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, vinous and concentrated, with an immensely incisive spine of ripe but bracing acidity, a fine mousse and a long, electric and searingly saline finish. This bottling is produced from several parcels in Montgueux, and all the vins clairs are now fermented and matured in barrel.–William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

One of Champagne's most exciting producers is Emmanuel Lassaigne, an intelligent and thoughtful grower who works with the chalky south- and southeast-facing slope vineyards of Montgueux. Geologically, Montgueux represents a continuation of the strata of the Côte de Blancs—and, incidentally, recent scholarship suggests that the hillside that nurtures vines today may once have been the site of the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, where Aetius and Theodoric defeated Attila the Hun. It was Emmanuel's father Jacques who in 1950s and 1960s began to replant some of the village's abandoned vineyards, and in 1999, rather than risk losing the estate, Emmanuel quit a successful career in manufacturing to return home. Organic farming, cultivated soils and harvesting at full maturity are his precepts in the vineyards. In the cellar, the wines ferment in wood and stainless steel, and they're disgorged by hand without dosage. The style is powerful and vinous but also racy and electric. William Kelley, The Wine Advocate