Champagne Laherte Frères Pinot Meunier Extra Brut Les Vignes d'Autrefois 2019

The sixth and seventh generations currently co-run the operation at Laherte Frères, with brothers Christian and Thierry Laherte heading up the business and land-management side, and Thierry’s son, Aurélien, acting as the winemaker. Their goal is singular: to allow the terroir to speak through the wines they craft.

This cuvée’s fruit is all Pinot Meunier, pulled from three prime parcels in the villages of Chavot and Mancy. The vines were all planted between 1847 and 1953, embedded into the ground by Frères ancestors and picked by hand when fully ripe to craft this wine in honor of generations past. Les Vignes d'Autrefois translates to “The Vines of Yesteryear,” and all of a sudden, everything about this wine and its origins makes sense.

Floating with aromas of yellow plum and chalkboard eraser, with a touch of the powdery almond scent of heliotrope flowers, this wine is contemplative, bright, and rich, with loads of poached quince, lemon zinger tea, and on the subtly sweet spice of long pepper on the palate. A minerally flint kick to finish gives this wine an ethereal, dexterous effect that will lure you in for another sip time and time again. This is an age-worthy, ultra-balanced, truly extraordinary wine that is as splendid on its own as it would be alongside the right meal. As it were, we don’t have many cases to go around, so make your move if this sounds like the Champagne of your deepest desires – it certainly is ours!