A. Margaine

An island of Chardonnay in a sea of Pinot Noir creates near Blanc de Blancs giving the most simply delicious Champagnes in this portfolio. A very small estate, 6 hectares producing around 4,000 cases, thus NOT MUCH WINE FOR US. Very reasonable prices! Very pretty packaging! They have their own minerality and tropical fruitiness; they’re bigger-bodied than wines of the Côte de Blancs, and to my mind they’re just about as pretty as Chardonnay can be. Damn, they could almost be Riesling! After drastically lowering dosage last year (an experiment which yielded, charitably, mixed results) Arnaud seems to have found the trail again. Still, the zeitgeist among the young hip growers, who speak with one another frequently, seems to be to get the Champagnes as dry as possible. So we’ll see. My sense is this particular terroir is predestined for flowery feminine Champagne. Margaine’s estate is a wee 6.5 hectares, producing 55,000 bottles per year. It’s a 95% village for Chardonnay. These are some of the most hauntingly beautiful and original Champagnes you can ever drink.