Jacques Lassaigne 'Les Vignes de Montgueux' NV

Blanc de Blancs (100% Chardonnay). Extra Brut. The grapes are harvested by hand—from 9 different sites—at their maximum ripeness before being destemmed & gently pressed. The fruit undergoes complete malolactic fermentation & no sulfites are added to the blend. The wine is aged in new & old barrels for 12 to 24 months and held in bottle for 1 to 5 years until it is disgorged, corked & released.

One of Champagne's most exciting producers is Emmanuel Lassaigne, an intelligent and thoughtful grower who works with the chalky south- and southeast-facing slope vineyards of Montgueux. Geologically, Montgueux represents a continuation of the strata of the Côte de Blancs. It was Emmanuel's father Jacques who in 1950s and 1960s began to replant some of the village's abandoned vineyards, and in 1999, rather than risk loosing the estate, Emmanuel quit a successful career in manufacturing to return home. Organic farming, cultivated soils and harvesting at full maturity are his precepts in the vineyards. In the cellar, the wines ferment in wood and stainless steel, and they're disgorged by hand without dosage. The style is powerful and vinous but also racy and electric. Like several others growers profiled in this issue, Lassaigne is especially significant because he is shining a spotlight on what is possible in what I've elsewhere called Champagne's "secret garden" of hidden producing villages. The négociants were long content to buy grapes from Montgueux without disclosing their origins, and only Charles Heidseick's former chef de cave, the late Daniel Thibault, ever publicly praised the sector. Yet today, Lassaigne's extraordinary Champagnes are pushing the qualitative boundaries not just of the Aube but of the entire region. I'll be devoting a more extensive essay to Lassaigne some time soon, but for now I warmly encourage readers to acquaint themselves with this first-rate producer. - William Kelley, Wine Advocate.