In Champagne’s Vallée de la Marne, Benoît and Mélanie Tarlant manage their vines and their cellar the way a mad scientist runs his laboratory. A pinch of that, a dash of this; everything is done painstakingly by hand and with keen attention to every detail.These 12th generation vignerons buck the trends of the Marne, where Pinot Meunier dominates. Instead, the Tarlants have planted half of their 13 hectares to Pinot Noir, and just under a third to Chardonnay.Tarlant père, Jean-Mary, made waves in Champagne in the ‘70s by producing some of the region’s first Brut Nature wines, with no added dosage; the aim here is to allow the purity of the fruit to beam through the glass, without any manipulations. With all of the extraordinary terroir, meticulous farming and winemaking techniques practices in use at Tarlant, you’d think the wines would sell for a ton of money—but no, somehow, over 12 generations, the Tarlant name has remained under the radar.
Professional Reviews
Antonio Galloni
Robert Parker
What importer Bowler Wine has to say about this wine...
50% Chardonnay/44% Pinot Noir/6% Pinot Meunier from organically farmed, hand-harvested estate vines across 63 parcels in 4 villages near Oeuilly in the Vallée de la Marne. The main focus of Benoît Tarlant's approach the rosé is making the perfect Pinot Noir, which makes up nearly half of the wine and is the starting point of the wine (as opposed to adding a bit of red later to a white base). Judging the appropriate levels of color, tannin and red-fruit flavors is a crucial challenge, given its high proportion in the final blend and its long aging.
Details
Champagne
Champagne boasts some of the world’s greatest luxury brands with Krug, Cristal and, of course, Dom Perignon. But it’s also home to hundreds of small dynamic producers—farmers who grow their own grapes (often organically) and make (often with natural methods) tiny amounts of pure and absolutely delicious wine that reflect the individual personalities of their villages and terroirs. Toast with these wines, for sure. But also treat them like the great wines they are: taste, drink, explore!