2020 Champagne Clandestin, Boreal, Brut Nature

Champagne Clandestin

Champagne Clandestin is a joint project from Bertrand Gautherot, of Vouette et Sorbée fame, and Benoît Doussot – a Burgundian winemaker specialising in Meursault. Together, they started Clandestin: a micro-négociant which buys sustainably-grown grapes from just 8 hectares, and creates the most terroir-expressive Champagnes imaginable.

This duo are producing limited quantities of fantastic wines, all hand-picked and farmed both organically and biodynamically. The name “clandestine” comes from the French for “hidden” and alludes to the 8 hectares of land they focus on. These historically overlooked parcels of north and west-facing vineyards, nestled above the town of Buxières, produce grapes of outstanding quality.

Each cuvée comes from a particular sun exposure: as the names suggest, Austral’s Pinot Noir grapes come from the south-facing vineyards, while Boreal’s come from the north. This is a Champagne producer whose passion is respectful viticulture and terroir expression, creating wines ideal for Champagne purists who value minerality, cut, and precision.

Blanc de Noirs

Blanc de Noirs describes a wine produced entirely from black grapes. In Champagne, Blanc de Noirs cuvée can be made from the two black grapes permitted within the appellation, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Bollinger's prestige cuvée Vieilles Vignes Françaises, from ungrafted, old Pinot Noir vines, has set the yardstick in a style that is now produced by a number of other Champagne houses.

Recommended Producers: Cedric Bouchard, Bollinger

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.