Le Cepage Verzy Grand Cru Extra Brut 2023

A mono-cru Champagne: a single village, a single grape variety, a single vintage. Le Cepage comes across young and still restless; with air or a little time in the cellar it turns silky without losing its firmness.

Verzy lies on the northern arc of the Montagne de Reims, where the vines border the forest home to the Faux de Verzy, centuries-old twisted dwarf beeches. The village is one of the 17 villages classified Grand Cru in Champagne. The soil is argilo-calcaire, limestone and clay over cool, water-retentive chalk rich in belemnites. Adrien Renoir, the fourth generation, took over his father's five hectares in 2014 at age 29, all of them in Verzy.

100% Pinot Noir from the 2023 vintage, from 50-year-old vines propagated by massal selection. The base wine fermented spontaneously with its own yeasts, remained unsulphured, and aged on full lees in used barriques and large oak casks. Tirage in July 2024, disgorgement in June 2026 with a dosage of 1.6 g/L, hence Extra Brut.

The nose shows crisp white and especially red berries and stony notes; with air and a little warmth, delicate autolytic notes emerge, along with graphite, wood, a touch of sherry and a hint of cream candy and white nougat. On the palate it is spicy, zesty, pleasantly bitter and mineral, with a creamy undertone, red and yellow fruit, toast, almond and a mouth-watering saline finish.

Renoir has forgone herbicides since 2015, switched to organic farming in 2016, complemented by biodynamic practices; cover crops grow between the rows instead of bare soil. Disgorgement is done without any addition of sulphur, a decision that leaves no room for correction in the glass.