Champagne Nuit Blanche Grand Cru Petit & Bajan
Managing a "garden" of only 3 hectares in the Champagne vineyard may seem very simple since the great Maison lead hundreds of them with dynamism and concreteness. But for Richard and Veronique it is a completely different story: plowing with the horse of the land to give vitality to the plants, maniacal parcel selections, grape harvests calibrated to the minute to harvest grapes with a perfect synthesis between maturity and acidity, no enrichment of musts or other exogenous practice, only flower must, indigenous yeasts grown in the Maison, refinements very long (currently in steel), obsessive prevention of oxidation at every stage of processing, frequent search for single vintage cuvée (not surprisingly 3 of the 4 labels produced are undeclared vintage wines).
Obviously a 100% chardonnay fruit of the Avize vineyards, with 2013 being the only vintage to make up the cuvée. Malolactic fermentation with a stop of about 66 months on the lees. Dosage as for the others in Extra Brut, even if defined as Brut: 3 gr / l. The 9 months post-disgorgement in the bottle before the sale (disgorgement January 2020) is judicious.
The nose offers the classic kaleidoscope of the aromas of Avize chardonnay: between orange, peach, white melon, fresh almond. In the mouth the acidity is strong and sharp but absolutely not "green" indeed well integrated with the texture and volume of the wine. The bubble is creamy and tantalizing, the final expansion, fresh and tasty, leads to compulsive drinking.
Petit & Bajan
The story of Veronique Bajan and Richard Petit tells of the union between the vineyards of Verzenay and Avize, the latter place where the two young spouses set up a home and where the idea of producing great Champagnes was born over the years. Theirs is the path of many champagnotte families that come together, each bringing a dowry of Terroirs and different farming experiences. The year 2008 is when Veronique and Richard, during a convivial summer dinner, listen to the tasting notes of a small group of renowned winemaker friends from Burgundy, the subject of a series of Champagne "made in Avize". For them it is enlightenment! Every single mistake, defect and lack of those bottles becomes a warning for their future project: if Champagne is to be, it will be at the highest levels, whatever the cost.
The puzzle of plots between Verzenay (Les Vinzelles, Mourmelonnes, Le Moulin and La Voie des Vaches) and Verzy dowry of Veronique (his father Jean-Pierre was the fulcrum of Maison Lanson for 30 years) mixes with the vineyards in Cote des Blancs di Richard to form their research and experimentation laboratory. A handful of hectares, 3 in total, and only 12,000 bottles (all Grand Cru) produced; the rest of the grapes sold dearly in Billecart-Salmon. Meticulous and careful in preserving the environment, the Petit et Bajan vines are now all HVE certified (high environmental value) and some have been converted to organic. Last but not least, in 2019, the renovation of the cellar in Avize as yet another starting point for new challenges.
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