NV Dosnon & Lepage Recolte Noire Brut Champagne 750 ml

Top 100 Winery — Rivaling the Best of the Côte de Blancs

Wine & Spirits magazine just announced its Top 100 wineries of 2017 and today’s Dosnon & Lepage made the list. Perhaps that’s no surprise when you consider the critical praise heaped on their MV Champagne Dosnon & Lepage Recolte Noire Brut. Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast agree it is stupendous — crowning it with 93 points. The former praised its “finely wrought texture and great fruit,” while the latter called it a “mouthwatering Champagne.” Even Antonio Galloni of Vinous hails it as “one of Champagne’s most promising young wineries.” Why? Winemaker wunderkind and co-founder Davy Dosnon ferments the still must of 100% Pinot Noir in just-used Puligny-Montrachet barrels — a trick he picked up from his days working in Burgundy cellars. This innovative tactic yields a brilliantly rich and complex bubbly from the Côte de Bars in Champagne’s south that easily rivals the best of the Côte de Blancs without a hefty price tag.

Dosnon’s no stranger to Avirey-Lingey. He grew up surrounded by its quiet, wheat-dotted hillsides. Although he left for Burgundy to hone his winemaking skills, the call of his peaceful hometown — specifically, its limestone-rich, Chablis-esque Kimmeridgian soils — never relented. He knew he had to eventually return. When he did, he launched Dosnon & Lepage with his childhood friend Simon-Charles Lepage, who had also heard the village’s soothing call from his Paris law offices.

Davy’s combination of out-of-the-box Burgundian craftsmanship and hometown intuition fuel the soul of this Champagne. And since the Côte de Bars is ideally suited to Pinot Noir, given its Sancerre and Chalis-like soils, the result is a breathtaking expression of taut minerality and crisp, vibrant and complex fruit. This is one Brut that’s not to be missed.