Emmanuel Brochet Le Mont Benoit Extra Brut, NV
$160.00
Emmanuel Brochet Le Mont Benoit Extra Brut, NV
$160.00
description
Brochet’s champagnes are sleek and finely-poised, showing a vinosity and ripeness derived from viticulture while maintaining a delicate freshness and balanced weight. They are marked by a distinctive minerality, one influenced by chalk yet somehow broader and earthier, more akin to the minerality found in the wines of Jérôme Prévost or Aubry to the west, or even Chartogne-Taillet to the north, rather than the overtly incisive chalkiness of the eastern Montagne de Reims.
The main cuvée of the estate is Le Mont Benoit, named for the parcel in which it is grown. It’s a blend of all three varieties, although the proportions can change considerably from one year to the next, depending on the conditions of the vintage. A portion of the blend is kept as reserve wine, and each release is generally composed of two vintages, incorporating a small portion of the previous year’s blend. While most of the wines for Le Mont Benoit go through malolactic, some of the non-malo wines that aren’t used for the vintage blends are also included in this cuvée.
In the past Brochet released Le Mont Benoit in two versions: brut (or later, extra brut) and non-dosé. Since the 2009-based version, though, he has decided to release it solely as an extra brut, as two different versions was "too complicated". Brochet prefers concentrated must (MCR) for dosage rather than sugar, “in order to be as neutral as possible,” he says.
He made a vintage champagne in 2005, blended from all three varieties, and repeated it in 2006. However, in 2006 he also made a pure chardonnay for the first time, exclusively from the coeur de cuvée and made entirely without malolactic. Following this, he has decided that all of his vintage champagnes will be made from a single variety: he followed up his outstanding 2006 Haut Chardonnay with an equally expressive 2009, and he also bottles a pure meunier called Les Hauts Meuniers, which, like the chardonnay, is made from vines planted in 1962.
The main cuvée of the estate is Le Mont Benoit, named for the parcel in which it is grown. It’s a blend of all three varieties, although the proportions can change considerably from one year to the next, depending on the conditions of the vintage. A portion of the blend is kept as reserve wine, and each release is generally composed of two vintages, incorporating a small portion of the previous year’s blend. While most of the wines for Le Mont Benoit go through malolactic, some of the non-malo wines that aren’t used for the vintage blends are also included in this cuvée.
In the past Brochet released Le Mont Benoit in two versions: brut (or later, extra brut) and non-dosé. Since the 2009-based version, though, he has decided to release it solely as an extra brut, as two different versions was "too complicated". Brochet prefers concentrated must (MCR) for dosage rather than sugar, “in order to be as neutral as possible,” he says.
He made a vintage champagne in 2005, blended from all three varieties, and repeated it in 2006. However, in 2006 he also made a pure chardonnay for the first time, exclusively from the coeur de cuvée and made entirely without malolactic. Following this, he has decided that all of his vintage champagnes will be made from a single variety: he followed up his outstanding 2006 Haut Chardonnay with an equally expressive 2009, and he also bottles a pure meunier called Les Hauts Meuniers, which, like the chardonnay, is made from vines planted in 1962.