Nicola Gatta, Blanc de Blancs NV - 75cl

Fifty moons is close to four years on the lees, longer than a good deal of vintage Champagne gets, and this bottle carries no vintage on the label at all. Nicola Gatta's Blanc de Blancs is straight Chardonnay off the limestone at Gussago, and it is the wine in his range where the ageing does most of the talking.

Gussago sits at the eastern end of Franciacorta, roughly 400 metres up, though you will not find the word Franciacorta on the bottle. Gatta walked away from the DOCG rather than be told how to farm and how to vinify, so this is bottled as Vino Spumante Nature. Everything happens by itself: fermentation on the yeasts that arrive with the grapes, no fining, no filtration, no sulphur added, no dosage at disgorgement. Five and a half hectares worked biodynamically, with olive trees and brambles left in among the vines.

Pale straw, and the nose is properly developed — bread crust, pastry, toasted almond, then citrus and white flowers coming back over the top with a yellow-fleshed stone fruit note sitting underneath. The palate has real texture for a wine with nothing added to fill it out, and it finishes long and distinctly salty. Chardonnay grown high on limestone tends to do that.

How to Serve

9–10°C, and reach for a broad white wine glass rather than a flute. There is enough aromatic development here that a narrow glass would waste half of it. No decanting, but do not rush the first pour.

Where to Drink It

Scott's in Mayfair, over the shellfish counter. Wiltons on Jermyn Street, where a serious Blanc de Blancs is understood without explanation. The Wolseley, for a late breakfast that turns into something else.

Food Pairings

Dressed brown crab, plenty of it, brown meat left in, hot toast alongside. The sweetness of the white meat meets the pastry notes four years on lees have built, and the wine's salinity stops the rich brown meat taking the whole plate over.