Coteaux Champenois Rouge, Grand Picou, Saint Agnan AOC 2019

A still wine from Champagne with power and concentration that nonetheless stays clear and precise. The nose opens with a fine reduction before revealing dark, crisp cherries and plums, joined by roses, earth, root notes and white pepper. In the glass, a slightly translucent cherry red.

The Grand Picou single vineyard lies near Saint-Agnan in the Vallée de la Marne, at 180 metres, with a 12 percent south-facing slope shaped by the Surmelin river. The subsoil consists of limestone and flint from the Bartonian. In the vineyard, the soil is ploughed shallowly beneath the vine row, with natural cover crops between the rows; work includes herbal treatments, Royat cordon pruning in the Poussard style, green harvesting in July, and green manure or organic fertilisers. 2019 brought a mild winter, early budbreak, three waves of frost up to 6 May and heat in July; August and September ripened the grapes with pronounced day-night temperature swings.

100 percent Pinot Noir, harvested on 20 September 2019. Destemmed, fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts, 15 days of maceration in tank with gentle punch-downs of the cap and minimal pump-overs, favouring infusion over extraction. This is followed by 20 months on fine lees in Burgundian pièces. Hand-bottled without fining on 16 July 2021, for a total of 1,071 bottles, 13.0% ABV.

Fine, juicy and composed, with dark fruit over earthy, stony and spicy notes. The acidity grows more agile by the second, joined by a dense, extract-rich core and firm tannin.

The vines come from a massal selection planted in 1982 by Suzanne Boiselle, the maternal grandmother. The Tarlant family has been based in Œuilly since 1687 and has been bottling Champagne without dosage — meaning without added sugar after the second fermentation — since the 1970s. Benoît and Mélanie Tarlant farm the 14 hectares organically and work with wild yeasts, without filtration.