"Les Hautes Chèvres" Cumières Premier Cru Brut Nature 2020

An uncompromising grower champagne with a dense, creamy texture and taut acidity. On the nose, ripe yellow pear, quince and brioche, alongside a bare, cool minerality. The absence of dosage leaves the round fruit of the Pinot Meunier unadorned.

The Les Hautes Chèvres parcel, "the high goats", lies in Cumières on the south-facing slope above the Marne, a few kilometres northwest of Épernay. The village's south-facing slopes are classified Premier Cru. The Laval family has lived here since 1694 and today farms 2.5 hectares across seven named parcels. The Meunier vines of Hautes Chèvres date from 1930 and 1971, and the soil is worked with horses. The estate has been organically certified since 1971, when Georges Laval converted after reading an article about pesticide traces found in Arctic ice.

Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Pressing takes place on a traditional Coquard vertical press with a 2,000-kilogram capacity, the smallest in the region and the legal minimum for champagne houses: the grapes are crushed slowly, the must flows without pressure. Fermentation is carried out by wild yeasts in used barrels; after ten months the wine is bottled without fining, filtration or cold stabilisation. Sulphur levels usually stay below 20 milligrams per litre, and the single-vineyard cuvées age on the lees for 50 months and longer. 12.5% ABV.

Juicy, fully dry and finely structured, carried by focused freshness. The finish stays long and salty.

With aged Comté, seared scallops and quail breast. Also with turbot and game birds.

The estate's annual production: 8,000 to 10,000 bottles. Vincent Laval has run the cellar since 1996.