(70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay)  The Greatest Grower Champagne I Know.

Proprietor Laurent Champs makes some of the most elegant, refined wines in Champagne. All of the wines are aged in oak ranging from large, neutral casks to small barriques, some of which are new for the top selections. Few producers have been able to find such impeccable balance using oak. A hint of Ramonet here, a suggestion of Leflaive there....simply put, these are majestic wines that no one who loves fine Champagne will want to be without.  ANTONIO GALLONI 

Laurent Champs is the fifth generation of the family to head this outstanding grower producer in the village of Rilly. Eleven hectares of low-yielding vines in and around the village, now a minimum of thirty-six years of age, are managed using organic and sustainable practices. All wines are fermented and aged in oak for ten months (foudres for non-vintage wines and barrels for vintage wines). The oaky styles of the early 1990s are a thing of the past and with impeccable attention to cellar hygiene and order and no malolactic fermentation, these are now wines of great purity and fine-drawn detail. Led by pinot noir (seventy percent, the remainder chardonnay), this is a wine of real concentration, character and power. There’s little about it that’s white apart from its colour. The bouquet sings with sour red berries, fruit mince spice (with generous gratings of orange zest) and spicy old oak complexity. This richness carries right through the palate, with uncountable layers of complexity and detail. Then, just when you fear it might all go too far, it coasts into a consummately controlled, long, fresh, dry finish that ripples with minerality and forges forward with every bit of complexity with which it began. Wow! This is a serious grower producer champagne at a very enticing price.