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RP95
Based on the 2020 vintage, the NV Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Lieux de Vie now incorporates some fruit from Avize lieux-dits Les Maladries and Le Champ Bouton (which will debut as a standalone bottling next year), while the percentage of reserve wines is a touch reduced, to 25%. Disgorged in January 2023 with only two grams per liter dosage, it offers up a deep and complex bouquet of freshly baked bread, crisp stone fruit, pear, buttery pastry, orange oil and clear honey, followed by a medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy palate that's satiny, suave and chiseled, concluding with a long, penetrating finish.
There are so many emerging small wineries in Champagne that the region is sometimes as overwhelming as it is exciting, and I try to visit as many new addresses I can every year. It's rare, however, that a new release gets me as excited as the wines I tasted at La Rogerie in Flavigny. This label is the work of a young couple, François Petit (from Champagne) and Justine Boxler (from Alsace), who started out with 0.70 hectares in 2015, gradually taking over François's family domaine (they also produce wine in Alsace with vines from Justine's side). The estate's patrimony is enviable: Chardonnay vines planted in the 1950s, mostly in Avize, using the massale selections of the epoch and never replanted. Their first years were dedicated to restoring the vineyards to health: no more herbicides, de-compacting the soils, encouraging biodiversity, changing trellising—the sort of good stewardship, in short, that is hopefully familiar by now to readers of these pages. Fruit is picked ripe and vinification is in wood. These first releases show real style and character, and I'm convinced La Rogerie is set for overnight stardom. Lieu-dit Champ Bouton will be making an appearance soon, in the 2019 vintage. Lovers of intensely flavored, artisanal Champagne from passionate growers should make every effort to secure a few bottles. (Robertparker .com)
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