Grower Champagne - As Dynamic as Ever

A lot of Champagne has been drunk in recent weeks as I holidayed across Europe. I was surprised and excited by the number of producers I had never heard of before, so I enjoyed tasting through a whole range of new things.

Etienne Calsac doesn’t quite fit that category as we have stocked his wines at Five Ways before, albeit very briefly, but it helped me recognise the name when browsing the shelves of Cantine Isola in Milan. Their Champagne range is formidable which made picking a few bottles quite tricky.

Fortunately, it seems as though picking a bottle of Etienne Calsac 'L'Echappee Belle' Blanc de Blancs NV off the shelf was the right call. We drank it a week later in Mykonos, overlooking a quiet and secluded beach in the east of the island. Etienne Calsac is based in Avize in the Cote de Blancs, working mainly with Chardonnay. This wine is actually a Blanc de Blanc and it possesses all the best traits of some of our favourite wines from this part of Champagne. It’s racy with bright acid, but the primary fruit that fills the mid palate is ripe and bronzed. There’s a wash of chalk and river pebbles across the back palate, and a slight leesy element that enhances the texture. A really exciting wine and a good introduction to the producer. – Ches Cook, FWC. 

Extra Brut, 100% Chardonnay, Disgorged 10/2023 25% oak 75% stainless steel vats. Aged on fine lees. 18 to 24 months. 70% of the base wine comes from the village of Grauves, known for its cooler microclimate. The vineyards were planted by Etienne’s grandparents, who are both from Grauves. Beginning in 2011, Etienne has kept a perpetual reserve just for this cuvée, and 30% of the final blend of 'L’Echappée Belle' is produced with reserve wine.

Disgorged December 2021. The Larmandier family vinify fruit from two tiny plots from at the heart of Avize (Chemin de Plivot planted in 1955, and Chemin de Flavigny planted in 1960) for this cuvée. Both are highly chalky parcels with very little topsoil, and both lie on the lower slopes of Avize (not far from Agrapart and Selosse’s La Fosse vineyard).

The winemaking is similar to the other cuvées, save for the use of smaller, neutral barrels for the fermentations, necessitated by the smaller quantities of wine produced. The wines age in bottle for a minimum of five years and are then disgorged by hand with only two grams dosage per litre. It’s a stunning, racy example of Avize, a little deeper than the Terre de Vertus, although more delicate and less fleshy than the Vieille Vigne du Levant.

“The 2014 Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Les Chemins d'Avize continues to show brilliantly, unfurling in the glass with aromas of citrus oil, freshly baked bread, white flowers, fresh mint, pastry cream and blanched almonds. Full-bodied, layered and vinous, it's chiseled and concentrated, with racy acids, chalky structure and a long, saline finish. This is a terrific bottle that exemplifies the Larmandier-Bernier style.” 96 points, William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

“The 2014 Extra Brut Les Chemins d'Avize Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru is fabulous. Rich, ample and potent, the 2014 possesses tremendous density from start to finish. Apricot, spice, dried flowers, graphite and lemon confit all build in a Champagne of enormous resonance. The pedigree here is evident. Chemins d'Avize is a blend from the Chemin de Plivot and Chemin de Flavigny lieux-dits. It was vinified in neutral oak and bottled with dosage of two grams per liter.” 95 points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous

Base 16, Disg. July 2023.

Vintages: 2016 (50%), 2015 (50%)

Bottling: 2017

Time on lees: 72 months

In some ways, this is the emblematic wine of the domaine. It was Michel Bettane, the influential French critic, who encouraged Francis Egly to bottle this single vineyard wine separately, with the first release being from the 1989 vintage. This latest offering was bottled after the 2016 base had spent close to one year in cask before being blended with 50% reserve wines from the 2015 vintage. All the vinification and aging for both vintages was in barrel.

The fruit comes from old Pinot Noir vines in a single terroir known as Les Crayeres. The vines here were planted in 1946, so are now 75 years old (vines of this age are extremely rare in Champagne). Here the soil is barely 30cm deep, then it's chalk, hundreds of metres down - hence the name of the site (craie is French for 'chalk', crayeres references chalk quarries which likely once existed here). Les Crayeres is situated mid-slope with a full south-facing exposure, not far from the estate's cellars. The old vines are deeply rooted, giving the wine a classic, mineral energy that weaves its way through the powerful, layered Pinot Noir fruit. The deep concentration is a product of the ripeness and low yields that both the site and its ancient vines naturally deliver. Importer's notes.

"A blend of the 2016 and 2015 vintages, the NV Brut Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru Les Crayeres is an especially good rendition of this almost routinely sublime bottling. Unwinding in the glass with notes of pear, wild berries, clear honey, white flowers, praline and freshly baked bread, it's medium to full-bodied, beautifully layered and textural, with a taut, concentrated core, racy acids and a long, mineral finish. This chiseled, intensely flavored Champagne was disgorged this year with only one gram per liter dosage." 98+ points, William Kelley, The Wine Advocate.

Bottling: 2015

Disgorgement: July 2023

Time on lees: 96 months

This is 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay from 40-year-old vines in Ambonnay. The wine was aged completely in barrel and there was only one gram per litre dosage. It is a seductive, layered, powerful expression of Ambonnay and, as with the Blanc de Noirs, represents one of the very finest wines of Champagne. Far from falling in the shadow of his spectacular 2012 and 2013 releases, the 2014 is very much their equal. Francis Egly told us that he believes it’s one of the finest Millésime wines he has produced.  The summer was cool, and then from mid-August through early September, he had ideal ripening conditions and the family harvested exceptional fruit. 

The result is a strikingly beautiful wine with floral notes, great energy and tremendous finesse. In a word, breathtaking. Yes, it is now getting up there in price, but we also need to consider not only the otherworldly quality but also the length of time these wines are being held in the cellar. They are essays in perfection and when compared to the prices of wines like Clos d’Ambonnay or many a Grand Cru Burgundy released two years after harvest, the price starts to look quite different.

One of the very finest wines produced in this less heralded vintage is Egly's 2014 Brut Grand Cru Millésime, a strikingly vinous and enveloping Champagne that wafts from the glass with aromas of pear, mirabelle plum, freshly baked bread, almond paste and honeycomb. Full-bodied, satiny and layered, its textural attack segues into a deep, concentrated mid-palate of exceptional purity and cut, concluding with a long, penetrating and mouthwateringly saline finish. As ever, it's a blend of some 70% Pinot Noir with 30% Chardonnay from Ambonnay's greate

This was (blind) tasted at the Jete Global Sparkling Tasting recently. It’s 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, is bottled unfined and unfiltered, and spends 96 months on lees. These notes are pretty rushed because it’s a speed masterclass tasting rather than a come back and polish your notes tasting, if you know what I mean. In any case this was my highest pointed wine of the day, prior to (and post) knowing its identity or origin. Strong stonefruits. Strong yeast or indeed Vegemite characters. Hints of honey and brine. Seaweed. Power, texture and length. Compelling. Strawberry jam in the aftertaste. Lemongrass or certainly a herbal element. Monumental. The personality is strong. The texture is strong. It’s thick and wiry at once, dry and juicy at once, overt and intricate at once. 97 points. Campbell Mattinson, Wine Front.

55% Pinot Noir, 10% Pinot Meunier & 35% Chardonnay. This is a blend of Vincent (sone of Georges) Laval?s south-facing premier cru vineyards in Cumi?res, just west of Epernay. Bottled in the spring after the harvest and aging in neutral oak for 6 months, it is then disgorged with no added sugar after 18 months and released shortly thereafter. Although due to the regulations in Champagne, this is not technically a vintage bottling because it does not spend the required three years sur latte, this wine is never a blend of vintages. The year of harvest is revealed above as the last two digits in the item code.