A single-varietal Chardonnay from the lieu-dit “L'Enclume” in Œuilly, Vallée de la Marne — ten years on the lees, zero dosage, a vintage champagne of cool precision.
Bottler: Champagne Tarlant, 51480 Oeuilly / Epernay / France
In the glass
Colour
Fine golden yellow with delicate green reflections and a fine-beaded, persistent mousse.
Nose
Citrus fruits and white blossoms meet toasted nuts, brioche and a chalky, smoky silex note derived from the extended lees ageing.
Palate
Taut and precise on the palate, with vibrant acidity, saline minerality and a long, finely delineated finish — completely unadorned without any dosage.
Character
Uncompromisingly pure and profound — a Blanc de Blancs that marries the power of the Marne Valley with cool elegance, having gained tremendous tension through ten years of bottle ageing on the lees.
Pairing
Oysters and raw seafood, delicately smoked fish or creamy dishes with mushrooms and white poultry.
Notes
Only 1,900 bottles from the 2011 vintage: spontaneously fermented in Burgundian barrels, without malolactic fermentation, unfined and aged on the lees for ten years — Chardonnay grown on silex over limestone from massal selection vines planted from 1977 onwards.
Tasting note
Colour & appearance
Deep, cool golden yellow with a fine, persistent mousse — ten years of bottle ageing reveal themselves quietly in the glass.
Nose
Precise and shaped by maturity: roasted hazelnut, dried mirabelle plum, alongside chalk and a delicate brioche note. Beneath lies the smoky flint of the silex subsoil — dark, almost saline.
Palate
Taut and linear, as one would expect from a Champagne with zero dosage. Citrus zest and green apple meet the spicy depth of cask maturation; the texture is silky, and the acidity sharpens without biting. Not a gram of sugar, nothing to hide — the wine stands entirely on its own.
Finish
Long, mineral and increasingly iodine-saline; the chalk lingers long after the fruit has faded.
Terroir & origin
The ‘L’Enclume’ plot is located in Œuilly in the Marne Valley, at an altitude of 135 metres, on a 15 per cent east-facing slope above the river. The subsoil consists of flint over limestone. The vines were planted from 1977 onwards using massal selection by the tenth and eleventh generations of the Tarlant family. The 2011 vintage was turbulent — a dry spring followed by a cool summer — and was harvested early, on 30 August.
Grape variety & vinification
100% Chardonnay. Gentle pressing, wild yeast fermentation, six months on the lees in Burgundian casks, without malolactic fermentation and without fining. Then ten years on the lees in bottle — disgorged in June 2022, dosage zero grams.
Food recommendations
The tautness of the silex demands substance: scallops in brown butter, sole meunière, chicken fricassee with morels, or simply a medium-aged Comté.
Special features
Only 1,900 bottles — a single-vineyard Champagne from a house that has eschewed dosage since the 1970s, long before Brut Nature became fashionable. Here we see what Chardonnay grown on flint can achieve after a decade of lees ageing: not a celebratory Champagne, but a wine to be taken seriously at the table.
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