Fil de Brume Brut Nature V16/15

A bright, fragrant Champagne with an almost fleshy core. The nose is soft, with yeast and brioche, lemon and stone-fruit tarts, underscored by chalk and limestone dust and meadow flowers. Cyril Jeaunaux built this wine for rondeur and gourmandise, and both are there in the glass.

Talus-Saint-Prix lies in the Vallée du Petit Morin, with the parcels stretching across the south-facing slopes above the river. The soil holds clay, limestone and chalk, and above all that flint once quarried here for millstones. In 1986, Michel and Marie-Claude Jeaunaux dug a cellar into the chalk rock by hand; it holds a constant twelve degrees and still houses the maturing bottles today.

80 percent Chardonnay and 20 percent Pinot Noir from vines around 60 years old, based on two vintages. Pressing takes place on two estate-owned Coquard presses, fermentation starts spontaneously, with no added yeasts. Ageing takes place in stainless steel and old wooden barrels, malolactic fermentation is not deliberately induced. The wine then spent 3.5 years sur lattes. 12.0% vol.

Crisper and more driven than the brioche nose suggests: fresh, bright and clear, with a light spiciness and an interplay of ripe fruit against a pleasant, almost tonic bitterness.

Oysters with a Champagne and coriander beurre blanc, bouchot mussels with chervil butter and root vegetables, steamed in paper, or yellow beetroot salad with walnuts, orange and falafel.

Cyril Jeaunaux and Clémence Robin have farmed organically since 2005 and biodynamically since 2010; the vineyards have been officially in conversion since 2015. The used oak barrels are at least ten years old: you shouldn't taste the wood, only the terroir.