Pascal Doquet Champ d'Alouettes Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs

Here is the revelation of our latest tasting of the Domaine’s wines: a Grand Cru blanc de blancs that is incredibly lively and energetic, despite the 18 years it has spent in the Doquet family cellars. Elegant, intense and prodigiously precise in its contours, it gives us a taste of fullness and eternity.

It is worth mentioning that this parceled cuvée had a particularly privileged origin. We are located in the heart of the famous Grand Cru of Mesnil-sur-Oger, in one of its highest quality terroirs, perfectly situated halfway up the slope. On the Champ d'Alouettes, the Doquets cultivate a vineyard planted in 1980, covering around sixty acres. Located on these famous fine, light soils, which cover the Campanian chalk layer and its marine fossils, the vineyard benefits from a very favourable microclimate, in a small valley facing east and protected from the prevailing winds. Affected by the "court-noué", it has the particularity of producing a significant proportion of small, extremely concentrated millerandé berries. Here, yields are naturally limited, resulting in juices with intense aromatic expression and mineral impregnation.

To preserve the strong aromatic identity and original acidity of the grapes, Pascal chooses to block malolactic fermentation. For the first press juice, he fully relies on the natural balances of the fruit. As for the vinification: one third in oak barrels (without new wood) and two thirds in enamelled vats.

This exceptional blend, bottled in spring 2005, spent 16 years on lees before being disgorged! However, it has lost none of its initial energy, quite the opposite, and today offers us a particularly vibrant, even exciting, interpretation of this fabulous terroir.

Starting with smoky notes, evoking peat and rubbed stone, the bouquet unfolds in successive waves. Barley sugar and brown sugar, dried fruits, undergrowth perfumes, gingerbread, cinnamon, pepper, praline, candied lemon, baked apple, peach compote and pineapple: it is a veritable farandole of aromas that explodes in the glass. The precision of the contours in the mouth is exceptional: a fleshy and dynamic material unfolds, supported by a very fine and compact bubble, which invades the palate with a subtle mix of tension and softness. As for the persistence, salty and salivating, it is phenomenal.

A great gastronomic Champagne that should pair perfectly with a veal stew with confit lemon, crispy and tender ris de veau with citrus caramel or a roast turbot with wild mushrooms. Unless you prefer Chef Bernard Pacaud's langoustines in sesame puff pastry and curry sauce!