Champagne Alexandra Sainz Héritage Brut Bouzy Grand Cru NV

The Sainz family name has been a staple in Champagne since 1741, in the fabulous Grand Cru village of Bouzy. Alexandra Sainz, who released her first bottling in 2021, used to traipse through the vineyard with her mother, guided to select only those grapes that were deemed the very best for the cuvée, and learning from her father how to gently handle the harvest to ensure what was selected maintained its purity and essence. Through practice of this meticulous attention and dedication across the years, she grew up to become a well-regarded winemaker in her own right and took the risk of bottling her own Champagne. I assure you, one sip, and you’ll join me in gratitude that she did!

Alexandra took her family legacy and her commitment to Champagne so seriously that she graduated from the Ecole Viticole de Champagne in Avize with an enology and viticulture diploma, one of the foremost wine schools in the world, and generally considered one of the very best for bubbly. She works with High Value Environmental-certified vines that are between 35 and 45 years old, grown on Bouzy’s chalky, hillside soils – ensuring this particular Champagne’s immense complexity and depth. 

Her Héritage Brut is a fantastic cuvée composed of some of the family’s best plots in Bouzy, blended with carefully aged reserve wines from the family cellar. The cepage is 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay, with a full six years of aging on the lees in bottle. A final dosage of a mere 4 grams at disgorgement ensures the vitality and freshness of this precise expression of Bouzy’s infamous power… and I can scarcely wait to see this develop over the next couple of years on the cork. (If I manage to wait that long!)

It’s pale gold, with a fine and delicate mousse which showcases a bouquet of toasted almonds, baked apples, and pate choux pastry dough. In the mouth, an explosion of Bing cherries, salted plums, and red apple skins coat the tongue, with percolating accents of smoky flint. The finish is taut and long, and endures as only Bouzy can. A new classic, if you will, and one that I’ll joyously sip on all through the spring and beyond. At the spectacular price of merely $49, this is simply too special to ignore!