2020 Roses de Jeanne - Blanc de Noirs La Presle (750ml)
Cédric Bouchard has built his reputation on a strict, self-imposed method: one vineyard, one grape, one vintage, and zero dosage, applied without exception across his range. Working from Celles-sur-Ource in the Côte des Bar, the southernmost stretch of Champagne, he farms organically and treats each parcel as a complete expression in itself rather than a component to be blended away. That discipline has earned his wines a reputation as something closer to white Burgundy with bubbles than typical Champagne.
La Presle comes from a tiny plot of just fifteen rows, planted in 2007 with ten different Burgundian clones of Pinot Noir through massale selection, growing on clay and Kimmeridgian limestone. The grapes are crushed by foot and fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel, then aged unfined and unfiltered on the lees for around three years before disgorgement with no dosage added, leaving the wine entirely shaped by its site and vintage.
The result is often described as the creamiest and most overtly Pinot-driven wine in Bouchard's range, layered with red stone fruit, kirsch, wildflowers, smoke, and slate. Pour it alongside caviar and warm blini.