Waris-Larmandier, Coteaux Champenois Blanc Cuvée 2022 - 75cl

Here is Champagne without the bubbles. Coteaux Champenois is the region's still wine — the same chalky Grand Cru vineyards, the same Chardonnay, but bottled quiet rather than sparkling. It is rare, and from a grower as serious as Waris-Larmandier, it is a small window into what the fruit tastes like before it becomes fizz.

The house sits in Avize, deep in the Côte des Blancs, and has been family-run for five generations. Jean-Philippe Waris began converting the estate's old-vine parcels to biodynamics in 2011, and they earned Demeter certification in 2020. Everything here is Grand Cru Chardonnay, farmed with real attention to the soil — and in a still wine, with nowhere for bubbles to hide, that farming shows.

The 2022 is all about the chalk. Expect a pale, bright glass with citrus and orchard fruit — lemon, white peach, a little green apple — lifted by the kind of taut, mineral acidity that only this corner of Champagne gives. There is a saline, stony thread running underneath that lingers on the finish. It is dry, precise and quietly intense, the sort of wine that rewards attention rather than shouting for it.

Drink it now with food, or give a bottle a couple of years to soften and broaden.

How to Serve

Serve cool but not cold, around 10–12°C — too cold and you lose the mineral detail. Use a proper white wine glass, not a flute; the wider bowl lets the chalk and citrus open up. No decanting needed.

Where to Drink It

Noble Rot in Bloomsbury, exactly the kind of grower-obsessed list where this belongs. The River Cafe, alongside something simple and Italian. Scott's in Mayfair, with a plate of oysters.

Food Pairings

Made for shellfish — oysters, langoustines, a plate of crab. It also loves a piece of grilled white fish with lemon, or young Comté if you are drinking it on its own.