Looking for Champagne for the holiday season? Wanting Grower’s Champagne with a négoce angle to the story? In today’s changing climate and through the multifarious meaning of that expression we are sensing and seeing a decline of former and rise of the latter. The landscape and scales are changing, mainly for reasons pertaining to logistics plus economics and so the blurred lines of growing, grape-accumulating and bottling are the rising trend, fashion and reality of the Champagne business. For a full, comprehensive and brilliant report on the subject, right-click, open a new tab and migrate over to read Treve Ring’s take at Jamie Goode’s Wine Anorak on the burgeoning subject.

Related – Beyond grower Champagne: where have all the growers gone?

Last April I had the immense pleasure to sit down with Riverdale Wines and taste the portfolio of William Saintot Champagne. These are the notes and yes I highly recommend making these wines your go to fizz for the upcoming last two weeks of 2019 revelry.

William Saintot La Cuvée Séduction Blanc De Blancs Champagne Premier Cru ($82.00)

The parcel for this cuvée is 50-plus years of age, 100 per cent chardonnay on Bisseuil limestone. We don’t often describe Champagne straight out as fruity but this goes all out to deliver. Fresh fruit, sliced, sluiced and dripping; peach, yellow plum and lemon, humid and in the air. Great freshness though more than just acidity is the seducer here. Gets tropical, into lemongrass and more. Appealing in the highest end commercial way. Drink 2019-2022.  Tasted April 2019

William Saintot Brut Blanc De Noirs Champagne Premier Cru ($62.00)

Fruit from 2014 (94 per cent) and 2015, in stainless steel tanks from the three pinot growing areas. Fresh and toasty and a seamless gathering of three pinpointed pinot noir terroirs. Avenay, Val d’Or and Muligny et Bisseuil get together for a three-layer, triad-pronged effect of fruit, acidity and exceptional Champagne tannin. Brilliant Blanc de Noirs (of 6.5 rS) and exceptional length. Drink 2019-2025.  Tasted April 2019

William Saintot Blanc De Noirs Champagne Premier Cru Chopine ($62.00, 375ml)

From the same pinot noir triad of terroirs (as the 750 mL B de N) but here in a split of the Brut and fruit going back to 2011 and 2010. That’s really the only difference, a monumental one truthfully speaking and disgorged in 2017. The toasty tastiness is accentuated and if you like brioche, baked apple, salve of texture, greater tannin and enough freshness to bely the oxidative tendency of ginger feathery Champagne then you will find the brilliance in this wine. Finishes with a smirk of orange créme brûlée. Great fun, pomp and circumstance in a serious way. Drink 2019-2023.  Tasted April 2019

William Saintot La Roseraie Champagne Premier Cru ($64.00)

Two growing areas contribute to this saignée Rosé, Muligny and Busseuil, with vines that average old, older and oldest, from the 60s – 80s, with some 100 year old plants. The blend is 72 per cent pinot plus (28) chardonnay, disgorged in 2018. The sugar level is raised just a touch to 6.5 rS and the alcohol a consistent 12 per cent. Berries and currants gain spirit from cranberry and pomegranate in a really energetic, tension-driven fruit affair. Truly stylish. Drink 2019-2023.  Tasted April 2019

William Saintot La Cuvée Prestige Champagne Premier Cru ($77.00)

The Prestige is an 80 per cent pinot noir and (20) chardonnay get together, disgorged in 2018. It’s a retrospective, trend-setting style, based on the Solera ideal with fruit inclusion going back to 2010. It’s not nearly as oxidative as you might expect, in fact its freshness is a sustainable guarantee. There are layers and layers involved that will take as long to peel away as they took have taken to accumulate since 2010. So much citrus in so many ways and once again that amazing grower’s acidity. It really works. Drink 2019-2026.  Tasted April 2019

William Saintot Brut Millésime Champagne Premier Cru 2012 ($89.00)

From chardonnay at Avenay Val d’or planted in 1970 plus chardonnay in Bisseuil planted in 1964. Here the most spirit, citrus accentuation and for the next time (not the first) a real distinction from one wine to the next. This shows the grower individuality and from one Champagne to the next. There is fennel, garrigue and beautiful savoury aspects here but still mainstream enough to challenge every household name for what to drink. Drink 2019-2027.  Tasted April 2019

William Saintot Extra Brut Champagne Premier Cru La Côte De Chignon 2011 ($150.00)

Disgorged 2017, nature and 2.6 rS, 100 per cent pinot from Avenay Val d’Or, only 1250 bottles made. The first to challenge our notions of earthy, elemental and even funky in Champagne. Lemon, seville orange and ginger, fresh and dried herbs but also a wet concrete meets clay earthiness. Fruit is managed and anything hut relegated while acidity keeps all the mille-feuille parts integrated, in-synch and complimentary. Very special Grower’s Champagne. Drink 2019-2028.  Tasted April 2019

Good to go!

godello

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