Champagne Leclerc Briant, Rosé de Saignée, Extra Brut
Critics reviews
95% Chardonnay with 5% Pinot Noir.
Mid-bronzey-salmon colour. Quite a neutral nose. But real presence in the mouth – a gastronomic champagne. Excellent balance and the intensity of fruit compensates for the low dosage. Clean and neat, though without the exuberance on the nose of the Réserve Brut.
Drink 2023 - 2028
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (May 2022)
About this WINE
Champagne Leclerc Briant
Champagne Leclerc Briant is part of our Spotlight on sustainability series. You can view the full range here.
Champagne Leclerc Briant focuses on organic and biodynamic viticulture, working in harmony with nature to produce some of the region’s most exciting wines.
Lucien Leclerc founded the estate in 1872 in the village of Cumières. In the mid-20th century, in the hands of Lucien’s great-grandson, Bertrand Leclerc, and his wife, Jacqueline Briant, the operation was moved to the beating heart of Champagne, Epernay, where it also took a new name – Leclerc Briant. It was around the same time that the house started practising biodynamics (one of the first in the region), eventually earning certification in the 1980s.
Since 2012, Chef du Cave Hervé Justin, formally of Duval-Leroy, has refined the House’s style. Working with organic and biodynamic fruit, he also practises biodynamic principles in the winery. The House has taken on new vineyards, renovated its facilities and has a renewed, uncompromising focus on quality.
The wines are low dosage, vineyard-specific and extremely interesting. Its Abyss cuvée is aged underwater.
Rose Champagne
Rosé wines are produced by leaving the juice of red grapes to macerate on their skins for a brief time to extract pigments (natural colourings). However, Rosé Champagne is notable in that it is produced by the addition of a small percentage of red wine – usually Pinot Noir from the village of Bouzy – during blending.
Recommended Producers : Billecart Salmon (Elizabeth Salmon Rose), Ruinart
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
95% Chardonnay with 5% Pinot Noir.
Mid-bronzey-salmon colour. Quite a neutral nose. But real presence in the mouth – a gastronomic champagne. Excellent balance and the intensity of fruit compensates for the low dosage. Clean and neat, though without the exuberance on the nose of the Réserve Brut.
Drink 2023 - 2028
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (May 2022)
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