Les Frères Mignon, L'Aventure Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru, Champagne NV - 75cl

For the best part of a century the Mignon family grew chardonnay in the Côte des Blancs and handed it straight over to the big houses. Florent and Julien took the vines back, built a cellar in Cramant and started bottling under the family name. L'Aventure was the first wine out of the door, and the name was not chosen for decoration.

It is 100% chardonnay from old vines across three villages: Avize and Cramant, both Grand Cru, blended with Cuis on the western flank of the Côte. Cuis is Premier Cru, and under Champagne's rules a blend takes the lower of its classifications — so the label reads Premier Cru while a good chunk of what is in the glass is Grand Cru fruit. That quirk is most of the reason this costs fifty-two pounds rather than ninety. The brothers work the vineyards with next to no chemistry, ferment spontaneously in barrel, and bottle without fining or filtration.

Cuis brings the tension; the Grand Cru villages fill in the middle. Green apple and lemon pith arrive first, then a warmer register of pastry and toasted almond from the time on lees. It goes out as Extra Brut, so the finish is dry, chalky and faintly insistent. Not a soft aperitif Champagne. It has edges, and it is better for them.

How to Serve

9–11°C. White-wine glass, always — the barrel-fermented weight does not register in a flute. Fifteen minutes out of the fridge before you pour will do more for this wine than any amount of extra chilling.

Where to Drink It

Bentley's on Swallow Street — oysters at the marble counter, nothing else required. Wiltons on Jermyn Street, for the full old-guard treatment. The Wolseley, mid-afternoon, when nobody is watching.

Food Pairings

Oysters are the obvious call and they do work. But I would rather have this alongside a slab of pork rillettes with cornichons: the bubbles and the acid strip the fat off your palate between mouthfuls, and that chalky finish gives the pickles something to argue with.