TN: NV Laherte Frères Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature (France, Champagne)

Popped a few bottles yesterday, but it was bloody hot and not all showed well. This one was tops and continues to impress me.

• NV Laherte Frères Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature - France, Champagne (6/22/2020)
  Nov. 2018 Disg. 2nd bottle recently and this continues to trend up for me. Super steely and clean, it shows good finesse and structure. Taut lemon and citrus with a brioche note that widens in the middle and hints at creamy richness as it opens and warms. However, it mostly lives on the edge, fans of the style will like this one. Curious to watch this evolve if I can keep my hands off a few.

Posted from CellarTracker

This wine is absurdly good, especially for the price.

Hmm Glad I grabbed a couple from Wine Access.

For those who haven’t signed up; use my referral link and get $50 off $150. (Also check your amex offers for stacking opportunities)

Thanks for the note, Dennis. Tempts me to open one of the bottles of this that I have.

Sounds great Dennis. I’ll be on the hunt!

Quickly becoming one of my favorite producers. The Rose’s are lights out as well.

Yessir. Especially using some of the access codes Vince was referring to below.

Thanks, guys! Enjoy.

Dennis,

I can only concur… The various champagne from Laherte Frères are all revelations. Simply sublime throughout the lineup, in my opinion. But you raised an important question: HOW to keep one’s hands off the bottles…?

NV Laherte Frères Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature - France, Champagne (1/19/2023)
– popped and poured –
– tasted non-blind over 4 hours –
– August 2021 disgorgement –
– Dosage advertised as being in the 0 - 5 g/L range –

NOSE: expressive; very chalky and high-toned; crisp; a tad vinous.

BODY: medium-light yellow colro; initially, the bead was extremely active, but it dissipated to nearly nothing over 2 hrs; light bodied.

TASTE: acidic, oceanic, and intensely flavored (but not-at-all heavy) — wow! chalky lemon; it took no more than one sip to know I love this! 12.5% alc. not noticeable; 100% Chardonnay; fermented and aged in oak barrels for 7 mos; this did seem to recede over a couple of hours, becoming increasingly austere and less fruit with air, and developing a leesy-type note at about the 3 hr. mark. Drink or Hold — I get the sense this would benefit from at least a couple years laying down. Will buy again. Excellent bottle of affordable bubbles here.

I love this wine too. I’ve drank a lot of these over the past few years and never found it anything but excellent. I’ve had these with a couple of years of age now and not found much difference. Might take a good deal more to bring appreciable change. It’s not that relevant though, as I love this for its bright, sharp immediacy.

Glad you like this bottling. I do too and reloaded some more in December. I may have mentioned this to you already so forgive me if it’s redundant…but it would be worth you trying the Nature de Craie bottling that he makes from Vertus chardonnay. That one is also sans dose, but also sans soufre. See what you think. I recommended it to another friend a few weeks back, he went out and got some and he sent me a note this week that he really thought it was excellent.

Good to know, Michael —- thank you. With how much I enjoyed this, I know I’d have to hide a bottle at offsite for me to have any chance whatsoever at giving it more than a couple years. Whites and Champagnes are perpetually in danger when within my arm’s reach.

I’ll buy one and give it a go, Frank. And, per the convo you and I had when I reached out moments after having my first sip of this and not being able to contain myself, I’m looking forward to cracking into the BdN, too —- still have to pick that up at WHWC —- hopefully they’ll have the Nature de Craie there, too, when I do.

… forever I’m in debt to you for your intrepid exploration and championing of this style of Grower Champagne that I love so much … thank you!

… and this is one of the things that can be so wonderful and enriching about the community we have here —- for every one of us here, there is at least a couple other board members whose palates overlap in such significant manner they can basically operate as a personal sommelier —- the trick is finding, and then following, them! Without Frank’s contributions on this board, and elsewhere, there is a decent chance my Champagne holdings and consumption would be next to nil. As it is, however, Champagne continues to claim an increasing percentage of the joy I get from this hobby, and it now routinely makes appearances with our meals. Yes, low dose / no dose is not for everyone (and that’s great because it would be boring if everyone had the same preferences), but it’s most definitely for me, and without the style I’d likely largely be ignoring Champgne. Find your guides, folks, and enjoy the journey!

Brian thank you for that post, I appreciate your words. This is a really big hobby, it’s a lot of voices and information out there so in my own way I’m glad that the words I’ve used have been helpful. I appreciate your post too and your notes in Cellartracker.

A minor point, but, technically, this is (or at least was?) from Vertus AND (somewhat unusually) Voipreux, isn’t it?More importantly, though, another huge thumbs up for Laherte, generally; On these two, specifically, while I also like the Nature de Craie (much more exciting from my perspective than some other wines from more or less the same village ), I think the “classic” Laherte BdB is a flat-out fantastic wine and incredibly consistent. Not really that many better options out there for me in terms of QPR or, indeed, simply on intrinsic merit.

It is. And I don’t know the % composition from Voipreux so I would add that to your point.

Voipreux is just a few kms east from Vertus but is it something we would consider to be part of Vertus? Or is it too far east from the appellation to be included?

Sorry for my confusion but do you mean the BdB Nature referenced in this post, or the Ultradition BdB? I’ve been considering a purchase of the latter. I have had the Ultradition Brut and Brut Nature and liked them okay, but much preferred this BdB Nature. Favorable pricing on the Ultradition BdB has me considering giving that a try.

Indeed, you can easily walk from one to the other, but, in terms of the vineyards, I think Voipreux is, like Bergeres, definitely seen as distinct from Vertus. Apart from driving past or through a number of times over the years, the only time I actually heard anyone mention Voipreux was during a visit with Guy Larmandier (some time like 2008 or 2010), but I have no idea what, if anything, makes it in any way distinctive. I think it was simply generically mentioned as a source of very good fruit.

You’re right, I was referring to the BdB Nature (the lovely colourful artistic label). I am VERY partial to the Ultradition bottlings as well, though. The Nature is probably more high-resolution and has this insane drive, but in my world the difference between the two is more a question of style than of quality. I’m undecided :-).

Not Tvrtko, so excuse me butting-in on this. I’ve found the Ultradition to be “solid”: not bad, but nothing to write home about. IMO, the slight step up to the BdB Brut Nature is 100% worth it.