Champagne Princes Blanc de Blancs NV 75cl

Dense and layered blanc de blancs with dried lime and lemon curd. Full-bodied with lots of pie crust and cooked apple. Creamy bubbles. Disgorged 2020. Base wine 2016 with some 2015. 80% grapes from Mesnil Sur Oger and 20% from Trepail. Drink now.

The NV Princes Brut Blanc de Blancs is a 100% Chardonnay that is sourced in Mesnil-sur-Oger (80%) and Trépail (20%). The wine has a discreet but elegant and complex bouquet of ripe white fruits intermingled with brioche, white caramel and honey aromas. Medium-bodied and delicate on the palate, this is a pretty rich and round yet fresh and elegant Champagne with a stimulatingly pure, mineral finish and persistent lemon flavors. This has good intensity, length and tension but without the finesse and lightness of the Blanc de Noir. This bottling (LPRBB7137BT) is based on 2012 (80%) and 2010/2011 (20%). This was disgorged in July 2017 with a dosage of six grams per liter.<br/>Champagne de Venoge's finest wines come along in carafe-shaped bottles that one might call kitsch, but I like them. They don't fit in my fridge door, but my fridge is big and the Champagne's good enough to deserve its own shelf and an upright position. The prestige cuvées Louis XV and Louis d'Or are remarkably elegant and vinous sparkling wines with structure, great complexity and also finesse. The 2006 Brut Rosé is one of the finest you can get, and the 1995 Louis XV is a greatly matured and generous Champagne that is still terribly fresh even though it was disgorged more than ten years ago in 2006. Cellar master Isabelle Tellier is doing a great job; there is not a single disappointing wine in the current portfolio that starts with the easy-drinking Cordon Bleu and offers some sophisticated cuvées in the Princes range. Champage de Venoge is—despite its glorious but volatile history (in terms of frequent changes of ownership)—still an underrated rising star in the Champagne region. Champagne de Venoge is now owned by Lanson-BCC.