Champagne Philippe Glavier Blanc de Blancs La Grâce d'Alphaël Extra Brut Grand Cru NV

Champagne Philippe Glavier is an exceptional Grower Producer based in Cramant, a Grand Cru village of the revered Côte des Blancs. This husband and wife team makes exceptional bubbly out of their cellar – almost exclusively based on the chardonnay grape. This is rich and opulent, classy and serious, and simply impeccable for the price. Do not miss this!

La Grâce d'Alphaël is known to be the angel of knowledge – and scoring some of this beauty certainly showcases bubbly wisdom of the highest caliber!

Philippe and Véronique Glavier have managed this small estate in Cramant since 1995. They both hail from winegrowing families, with Véronique standing as the 12th generation of her family from the nearby village of Monthelon. Philippe is the third-generation vigneron, who inherited a small domaine that now serves as their base. Over the years, they’ve built their holdings to a total of 4.5 hectares – with 49 different plots in Cramant, Avize, Oger, and Le Mesnil. Each plot is farmed and vinified separately, granting the pair a nearly limitless possibility of chardonnay combinations for blending.

This 100% chardonnay has a 60% base of the 2017 vintage, with the remainder comprised of the estate reserve wine. Some 2.5 years on the lees for integration, but with a disgorgement of September 2020, this has had over three years since final bottling to take it to the next level! A blend of chardonnay from all of their holdings, predominantly Le Mesnil at 34%, then Cramant, followed by Oger, and Avize. Powerful, yet elegant, intense yet subtle – this is the perfect expression of why I love a few years on the cork – especially for intense, mineral-driven, Blanc de Blancs such as this!

The aromas are lively and opulent, with toasted almonds, orange blossoms, and red apples – all framed by that warming, autolytic yeastiness. The mouthfeel is rich and viscous to match, but with an uplifting and fresh acidity that sparkles. Tangerine oil, Earl Grey tea, green apples, lemon cream, and Ruby Red grapefruit, accented by spice notes of clove and toasty barrel, and finished with this sweet and creamy Orange BANG! Finish. It’s clean and ample throughout – offering tons of pleasure and complexity for a rather exceptional price! We stumbled across this portfolio at a Grower Champagne-focused tasting (my very favorite sort!) several months back and they were one of the standouts for quality across their entire portfolio. After a few months of eagerly awaiting these wines to arrive, our ship came in and man, were we ever excited to pop a bottle of this! The chance is now yours, but do hurry...not a lot to be had!

PAIRING IDEAS: I kicked off Mardi Gras a few weeks back with a proper NOLA feast. Of the many, many culinary highlights, an entree of Trout Pontchartrain was a standout. A bottle of this should pair fantastically.