Waris-Larmandier, Particules Crayeuses Extra Brut Grand Cru NV - 75cl

Waris-Larmandier work a handful of old-vine Grand Cru parcels across the Côte des Blancs, and Particules Crayeuses is where their house style lands most clearly. It is grower Champagne — the family farm the fruit and make the wine — and it is all Chardonnay, off vines of forty years and more in Chouilly, Cramant, Avize, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.

The cuvée is built from two base vintages topped up with roughly a third from a solera begun in 2013, which gives it depth without losing the cut you want from chalk-grown Chardonnay. Base wines rest six to eighteen months before a further two to three years on the lees, and the dosage sits around four grams — firmly Extra Brut. One quiet detail matters: it is bottled at lower pressure than most Champagne, closer to 4.5 bar, so the mousse arrives soft and creamy rather than sharp.

Expect fresh hazelnut and lemon zest on the nose, white orchard fruit behind, and that flinty, oyster-shell smell the best Côte des Blancs sites throw off. The palate is taut and saline, apple and pear carried on fine bubbles, the finish long and dry with real chalky grip. Autolysis shows as a light brioche note rather than heavy toast.

Drink it as an apéritif or across a first course — it has the tension for shellfish and the substance to keep going.

How to Serve

Chill to 8-10°C, no colder; good grower fizz shuts down when it is over-chilled. Pour into a white-wine glass rather than a flute so the aromatics open. Best opened fresh, though it will take a decade of ageing.

Where to Drink It

Bentley's, Swallow Street — oysters and grower Champagne. Noble Rot, Lamb's Conduit Street — a proper list for wines like this. Dandy, Maltby Street — low-intervention leaning, small-grower friendly.

Food Pairings

Native oysters, or turbot with a little brown butter.