Telmont, Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut 2012 (12%)
£70 Harvey Nichols
Both of our Champagne Best in Show wines this year have seen plenty of cellar age, something that is particularly important when a low dosage takes the wine into the extra brut category, as it does for this refined, pure-fruited blanc de blancs. The pale straw gold colour is just beginning to deepen, and the wine has a restrained aromatic profile of white nectarine and peach, with the cream of lost lees smoothing its journey in the glass. In the mouth, it is intense, searching and pure, all sap and sinew at first; give it time, and you’ll see those early-season summer fruits begin to smile shyly despite the wine’s dry force.
Telmont was born in 1912 on the back of the
1911 Champagne Riots, in which its founder Henri Lhôpital was a prime mover, even penning a hymn exhorting his fellow growers to stand firm in their quest to maintain Champagne’s integrity.
Today, the fourth generation of the Lhôpital family is no less determined, certainly not when it comes to nurturing the land: the estate will be fully organic by 2025; gift packaging has ceased; all bottles are now made from fully recyclable green glass; offices are run on 100% renewable electricity, and from 2024 wines will be shipped to the US on wind-powered freight ships. Little wonder the famously eco-aware actor Leonardo DiCaprio has recently invested.
‘We are proud and protective of our vines and our terroir,’ says Bertrand Lhôpital, Telmont’s head of viticulture and cellar master. ‘We believe that the wine will be good if the earth is true. Therefore, although we still follow the true aromatic style of the house, each year our wines evolve with our terroir.
The Blanc de Blancs 2012 is a ‘marvel of Mother Nature’, he says. ‘It’s the exceptional offering of a unique harvest, when the summer sun allowed for a leisurely, beautiful ripening of Chardonnay.’
The fruit comes from a variety of villages, with the grand cru village of Avize supplying almost half. A total of 24,415 bottles were made.