Champagne Tarlant Cuvee Louis Brut Nature 2004

Created by the Tarlants’ parents back in 1982, the prestige cuvée Louis is named for Benoît’s and Melanie’s great-great-great grandfather. Louis was the first to bottle Tarlant estate wine (in 1928) and the one who planted this 0.9 hectare of selection massale Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (in 1946-48). The lieu-dit is named Les Crayons in reference to its particularly chalky make-up and is a flat site near the Marne in the Tarlant home village of Oeuilly that yields a “river wine,” as the Tarlants refer to it, of fuller body and richer character. The fruit was hand-harvested and gently pressed; the juice was fermented with natural yeasts in Burgundy barrel; and the wine was aged in barrel with no malolactic fermentation until bottling in 2005. Aged sur lattes until disgorgement with zero dosage in early 2021. Unusually, the 2004 is a vintage wine, the first time since 1996, and is now labeled “Cuvée Louis Tarlant.”

Blend: 50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir.