Domaine d’Helene, Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru 2017 - 75cl

Pierre Hugot’s family have grown vines at Cramant since 1891. Before he came home to work them he did time at Comte Liger-Belair, Jean-Marc Roulot and Chavy-Chouet — three of the most exacting addresses in Burgundy — and you can taste where he learned. Domaine d’Hélène is his own project. The 2017 was the first cuvée he released under it, and there were only around two thousand bottles.

All Chardonnay, from old vines of fifty years and more, spread across Cramant, Avize and Oger. Three Grand Cru villages, all Côte des Blancs, all chalk. Native yeasts, fermented in a mix of tank and barrel, then bottled Extra Brut at 2g/l — which is close to nothing. There is no dosage here to round off the edges or paper over a gap. What reaches the glass is fruit and chalk and very little else.

That sounds austere. It isn’t. Lemon pith, white flowers, a little toasted hazelnut off the lees, and underneath it the saline, stony pull the Côte des Blancs does better than anywhere on earth. The mousse is fine and quiet. Length is the giveaway — it carries on long after a £40 Champagne has any business finishing.

Grower Champagne with this pedigree usually costs half again. Buy two.

How to Serve

8–10°C, no colder — over-chilling shuts the chalk down completely. Use a white wine glass rather than a flute. It needs air to show what it has.

Where to Drink It

Noble Rot, where they will know exactly what this is. Bentley’s, at the oyster counter. Scott’s in Mayfair when the occasion warrants tablecloths.

Food Pairings

Native oysters, straight up, nothing on them. The salinity in the wine and the salinity in the shell do something to each other that is hard to describe and very easy to enjoy.