Champagne De Saint Gall Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Extra Brut
WHY WE LOVE IT
- If you are into bone-dry, tension-packed Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Champagne with singular focus and a sense of place, it is hard to find anything that tops this sensational cuvee from De Saint Gall.
- Sourced from the oldest parcels of De Saint Gall’s holdings in the Côte des Blancs crus of Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Clamant, and Avize.
Varietal Composition: 100% Chardonnay
Elaboration: Hand picked grapes, fermentation in stainless tank, 36 months on lees, just a tiny 4g/L dosage from a solera that goes back forty years.
Tasting Notes: This varietal wine reveals the essence of Champagne. With very little sugar, it requires exceptional grapes and meticulous methods. Its appearance is an enticing straw color and its nose delivers aromas of citrus fruit. On the palate it is clean, with minerality, and full of verve.
PRESS
NV – 90 James Suckling | 91 Decanter World Wine Awards (Silver) | 92 Wine Advocate
PRODUCER BACKGROUND
Champagne De Saint Gall is the flagship label of Union Champagne, an Avize-Based “new-generation” cooperative on a meteoric rise to stardom. Historically most of the company’s wine has been sold to the region’s iconic houses to be blended into their top luxury brands, a practice which still accounts for a sizable proportion of Union Champagne’s business. As far as cooperatives go this is without question the wealthiest of its kind in the world let alone the wine trade, with a staggering 615 hectares of Grand Cru vineyard land, 615 hectares of Premier Cru vineyard land, and 135 hectares of “mere mortal” unclassified vineyard land. Most of the firm’s acreage lies in the sought-after Côte des Blancs zone, where they farm more Grand Cru acreage than all other Champagne houses combined. Now banded together, Union Champagne’s member/farmers can be considered the kings of ultra-premium Champagne, as no other firm in Champagne holds close to this amount of elite-level acreage. Union Champagne’s recent shift, a commitment to producing and selling finished wine on their own, is the most interesting thing to happen in Champagne during our forty years covering the region. With pride (and a healthy dose of astonishment, really…) we offer you these new releases from De Saint Gall – Reference points in classical, terroir-driven Premier Cru and Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Champagne.