A Revelation in Meunier Champagne from Alexandre Le Brun

Alexandre Le Brun is the smallest producer that we work with in Champagne. He has just seven acres and sells three-quarters of his production to Champagne Bollinger. He keeps the remaining quarter for himself, creating incredible wines of depth, concentration, and finesse in a 16th-century cellar underneath his ancestral home. Of this tiny production, he makes just one press load—and not every year—of his Révélation Blanc de Meunier. For those of you who tasted the 2009 or the 2012, the wine needs little introduction: it is flat out one of the best wines that we have in stock, regardless of price.

 The 2014 Alexandre Le Brun “Cuvée Révélation” Brut Champagne ($79.99) comes from a very special plot in Monthelon, just behind the house on a southeast facing slope. It is entirely Meunier, half of which was planted in 1952 and the other half in 1902—the oldest living vines that I have seen in Champagne. The village of Monthelon is in the Côteaux Sud d’Épernay, one of the coldest microclimates in Champagne, and that cold climate, in tandem with these ancient vines, has given us a truly epic wine. Alex’s craft has added to this—he uses a combination of small oak and large foudres for this wine along with a very long, slow fermentation as they do at Billecart-Salmon. The very cool and even 2014 vintage has also contributed, giving this wine extra electricity, and, I think, making it even better than the spectacular 2012.

We drank a bottle of this wine on Sunday for our aperitif with figs stuffed with onion jam and cheese. It was the best current release Champagne I have had this year. The golden color belies the extraordinary freshness on the nose and on the palate. The bouquet was generous, with fresh baguette and subtle peach aromas. In the mouth the wine was as elegant as any in our stock, the opposite of the reputation that Meunier has been unfairly given by many of the big houses. Certainly the wine has concentration and power, with layers of toast, green pear and subtle vanilla, but everything is in such perfect balance that I struggle to describe it. The finish is as long and kaleidoscopic as anything I have ever had. Don’t miss this one. There is not a lot to go around! 

-Gary Westby