![Bottle of Tarlant, Champagne Cuvee Louis Tarlant Brut Nature [2004 + 2005], NV - Sparkling Wine - Flatiron Wines & Spirits - New York](http://nyc.flatiron-wines.com/cdn/shop/files/Tarlant-Champagne-Cuvee-Louis-Tarlant-Brut-Nature-1996-Sparkling-Wine-Flatiron-Wines-Spirits-New-York.jpg?v=1767883612)
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.
What importer Bowler Wine has to say about this wine...
50%Chardonnay/50% Pinot Noir. Created by the Tarlants' parents back in 1982, Cuvée Louis is named for Benoît’s and Melanie’s great-great-great grandfather. Louis was the first to bottle Tarlant estate wine (in 1928) and the one who planted this 0.9 hectare of selection-massale Pinot Noir and Chardonnay back in 1946-1948. The lieu-dit is named "Les Crayons" in reference to its particularly chalky make-up and is a flat site near the Marne in the Tarlants' home village of Oeuilly. This low-lying, river-adjacent site yields what the Tarlants refer to as "a river wine", necessarily of fuller body and richer character. The vines are organically farmed and harvested by hand and the clusters very slowly and gently pressed. The juice ferments spontaneously with native yeasts in Burgundy barrels; the wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. The 1996 was bottled in 1997 and not disgorged until 2025. "Louis" is almost always a multi-vintage bottling but in this case, the choice was to let this legendary Champagne vintage stand alone.
Details
-
Grape Variety
-
Vintage
Champagne , 1996
-
Size
750ml
-
Farming Practice
Sustainable
-
Style
Aromatic , Elegant
-
Sweetness
Dry
-
Body
Medium Bodied
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!
