Fantastic Champagne discovery! We went, we saw, we tasted - a Vin Cognito exclusive!

 Champagne Le Brun de Neuville

“A really, really interesting champagne! A real sense of story here, from start to mouth-drawing finish.”
– Jancis Robinson, 17 points

- Fantastic new discovery –

- They sell their grapes to Krug and Bollinger, but keep the best back for their own Champagne –

- If you work for Krug or Bollinger, the above statement is, of course, just a joke! –  

In autumn last year, we had organised a trip to visit the Champagne house, Le Brun de Neuville, having tasted and loved their champagnes at a wine fair. A few days before we were due to leave, I caught the coronavirus, so we had to postpone the trip by a couple of weeks. On the eve of our new departure date, Antoine Caparros, the chap who was due to show us around at Le Brun de Neuville, called to say that he had fallen down a hill (“I was a leetle bit, how you say, tipsy!”) and had broken his ankle and collarbone. So, we cancelled our accommodation and our train tickets yet again and rebooked for late September. On the morning of our newly rebooked departure date, James was about to leave to collect me en route to the Eurotunnel, but a tickle in his throat made him question his wellbeing, so he took a Covid test and, unless you have no grasp whatsoever of narrative structure, you will know what happened next.

A less tenacious pair of wine merchants might have concluded that these harbingers were enough to suggest that this venture was doomed and should be abandoned immediately, but we picked ourselves up, tested ourselves off and booked our trip for a fourth time, but this time we added a rendezvous in Burgundy to our itinerary, as a little perk for all the previous disappointments.
 
We arrived in Champagne under glorious late autumn sunshine, the harvest having just been completed, so the leaves of the vines were turning from green to gold. Antoine greeted us, his arms as far outstretched as his healing collarbone would allow and within a few minutes we were standing in a vineyard for the first time since 2019.

Champagne Le Brun de Neuville is based in the Cote de Sézanne, one of the most southerly regions in Champagne, where Chardonnay grows on calcareous soils and is greatly sought after for its quality, because, unlike in the Cote des Blancs, where the slopes face due east, the slopes here face south-east, meaning the grapes see many more sunshine hours and ripen more fully. Bollinger, Laurent-Perrier and Krug all queue up to buy grapes from these vineyards and Le Brun de Neuville have long-standing contracts with all of them. We asked Antoine how they decide which grapes go to the big Champagne houses and which grapes go into their own cuvées and he smiled mischievously and whispered “We keep the best for ourselves, of course!”

Le Brun de Neuville work with 26 growers and it’s very much a local affair, from the managing director, who owns 4 hectares, to the accountant, who owns 2 hectares, to Antoine’s assistant, who owns a couple of rows. Champagne houses in Epernay can feel very intimidating when you visit them and you can feel slightly ‘processed’ as you are handed a glossy brochure and a portion-controlled sample before being ushered out, but you can feel the common purpose at a place like Le Brun de Neuville and it really warms the cockles. It is a co-operative in the truest sense of the word. The chef de caves, Gilles Balthazar, now in his late-70s, has worked here for 36 years and retires this month. As we were walking between the barrel-room and the bottling-room, a forklift truck loaded with magnums drove past. Antoine called over to the driver “Bonjour, Monsieur Balthazar!” Somehow, I can’t imagine Olivier Krug driving the forklift up the Avenue de Champagne.

As for the wines themselves, it will comes as no surprise to learn that the house specialises in Blancs de Blancs (i.e. Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes).

Champagne ‘Cote Blanche’, Blancs de Blancs Brut, Le Brun de Neuville NV 

buy here

Tasting Note: "This beautiful Champagne is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes sourced from all the different Crus of Côte de Sézanne. The base wine is from the 2017 vintage with 14% of reserve wine (going back to 2009) blended into it and 60 months ageing on its lees, adding complexity and texture. The aromas pay tribute to those Chardonnay grapes. Ample and generous with pristine fruit expression, this cuvée has quintessential Champagne notes of lemon, apple, white pear, white flowers and biscuit combined with a freshness as invigorating as sea spray. It has that combination of power and elegance that you find in Billecart-Salmon's Blanc de Blancs. Lemon syllabub springs to mind, with its blend of creamy mascarpone and sharp lemon rind, then it expands into flavours of white stone fruit and freshly baked apple pie (specifically my grandmother’s). There's a wonderful interplay of sweet and sour apple on the finish, which brings the experience full circle, with a moreish hint of flaky millefeuille pastry at the very end, together with a chalky mineral sense, which links back to the terroir. Beautifully balanced with a long, fine mousse of tiny beads on the palate creating that smooth, almost creamy, luxury texture. It's a Champagne that you can drink now or lay down for 2-4 years as it will gain further complexity. It does exactly what great Champagne should do, it gives you a little frisson, an impulse to unwind, and then it lifts you a couple of inches off the ground. It’s hard to imagine a more enjoyable Champagne to drink as an aperitif or with a meal (Antoine suggests quenelles de brochet sauce mousseline). 12% alc.

JancisRobinson.com: “Green florals, sage, lemon cream. Smoky grilled hazelnuts. A dash of salty pickle brine. Crunchy apples. Lots and lots of tightly wound, saline and lime-pickle tang. Silk-and-lace bubbles. A really, really interesting champagne! A real sense of story here, from start to mouth-drawing finish. Drink now-2029.” 17 points

Epilogue

Having said our goodbyes, we headed for our rendezvous in Burgundy. As we joined the motorway heading south, I checked my emails. One immediately caught my eye. It was from the winemaker in Beaune and it read: “I’m sorry, I will not be able to welcome you, I got Covid today, but don’t worry my assistant, Albane, will be able to receive you, best wishes, Thomas.” Whew, all was not lost!

A couple of hours later, as we approached the outskirts of Beaune, an email pinged on my phone. It was from Albane, the winemaker’s assistant. It read: “I’m afraid I now have symptoms too and have done a test and I also have Covid, so I am very sorry, but no one will be able to see you. The winery is now closed until further notice.”

The thing about harbingers is that they can be very unspecific.

So, we headed into Beaune for supper at the Caves Madeleine, where we shared a long table with other diners in a warm and convivial atmosphere and drowned our Burgundy sorrows in a consoling bottle of Ganevat’s ‘La Florine’ Chardonnay 2016, but our eyes were drawn to the couple beside us, who had picked a bottle of Nuits St Georges ‘Le Clos des Corvées’ Domaine Prieure Roch 2007, a unicorn wine of the highest order and a mere €1,200 on the wine list. As our main courses arrived, the couple paid their bill and left, leaving behind at least a quarter of the bottle! Checking carefully that no one had noticed, we slid the bottle closer, inch by inch, until it fell within our jurisdiction on the table. I am afraid to report that our good manners deserted us. Reader, we drank it.