Champagne Blanc de Noirs extra brut Val Cornet 2017

Half-each Meunier and Pinot; all-2010; and matured in older casks, Falmet’s single-vineyard NV Brut Le Val Cornet Disg. 5/2012 is nothing short of revelatory in its polish, transparency and complexity! (Bear in mind that, like me, you will almost certainly never have tasted a wine from within 20 or 25 miles of this one, as we’re talking about an almost entirely overlooked sector of a Champagne region, the Bar, that has only since the turn of the millennium begun to attract attention for estate-bottling.) A greenhouse-like profusion of leafing and flowering things on the nose is joined by scents of apple and red raspberry subtly shadowed by their high-toned distilled counterparts. Almost weightlessly buoyant, seductively silken and infectiously juicy in its apple and raspberry manifestations, this amazing libation simultaneously suggests hazelnut cream, almond paste and walnut oil, resulting in an uncanny counterpoint with its lively fruit acids. Crunch of berry seeds and legume sprouts lend invigoration to a chalk suffused finish in which salinity and savor of oyster liquor spell “Umami” and “Kimmeridgian” in caps, and it takes real effort to disengage the salivary glands, much less resist the next sip. I’m only guessing when I suggest that this will be worth following for at least several more years. But don’t miss out on some now! (As soon as I had finished my sample, I went on-line and bought some of this amazing value in Champagne, in part just to re-taste and make sure it was really this good.) 

The wines of Nathalie Falmet – a chemist and oenologist who began bottling from her family’s eight acres in 2009 – were among my most exciting first-time experiences in preparing this report. These vineyards are on a belt of Kimmeridgian at the western edge of the Bar – and of Champagne as a whole – and incidentally include some in the village neighboring to Falmet’s, Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, famous as the birthplace Charles de Gaulle.

Published: Nov 30, 2013 by David Schildknecht
* Bewertung eines abweichenden Jahrgangs.