The Nowack family has been around Champagne since the 1700s. They moved from the Czech Republic, although their family craft was not in wine, but in, shall we say, the construction arts, or the firing of bricks and tiles and pipe laying. However, Patriarch Pierre-Fernand Nowack started growing grapes around 1850, and so the Nowack legacy began. Today, seventh-generation vintner, Flavien Nowack, runs winery operations. His fervor has transformed viticultural practices in the Nowack family vineyard, and since 2011, the label has been farming organically and biodynamically. 

Flavien focuses on single-vineyard bottlings of his wines to express the terroir of his seven hectares of vines. When vinifying, he uses indigenous yeasts for the first fermentation, but nothing or just grape must for the second. The resulting wines are more vinous in texture, with less effervescence due to the lower atmospheric pressure in the bottle. Flavien is big on experimentation as evidenced by this Champagne. 

Though the Nowacks make many cuvees, their signature cuvee is this Sans Annee, and Flavien has affectionately called it “a reflection of my village.” The cepage is 60% Meunier and 40% Chardonnay, with a ‘21 vintage base and solera-style reserve wines from between 2012 and 2020. There’s only one gram per liter of dosage here, letting the terroir speak all its own, and it ages for two years in the bottle. The nose expresses a lovely conglomeration of quince paste, acacia flowers, toasted almonds, coconut macaroon, and preserved lemon – followed up on the palate with dense tropical fruits, including pineapple, bananas, golden kiwis, passion fruit, and guava taking center stage. Sans Annee is a mouth-coating and mouth-watering wine, and the acid is practically searing, with some angular edges that tend to round out quickly. 

These are some of the best wines I’ve ever tasted, and for the price, the value is borderline unbelievable! You get all of this in a magnum for only $115 – highly lauded Champagne from a producer who’s been in the game for centuries now. Do not miss out, darling!