For four generations, the Fluteau family has crafted wines from their own estate vineyards, in their original winery, in the charming village of Gyé-sur-Seine. Today, Jeremy Fluteau helms the winemaking side of things, with his sister, Adeline taking on the administration and sales. The Fluteau style is neither rigid to traditional methods, nor endlessly seeking the newest fads – and Jeremy is about as practical a winemaker as I’ve ever met. He doesn’t wax poetically about the art of winemaking, he simply exists in a highly logical and constantly adjusting space…the space of a farmer reacting, preventing, or minimizing the onslaught of challenges hurled at Champagne growers every season. Yet for all his stoicism, the wines he produces are quite expressive, and simply a joy to drink. These under-the-radar wines seem to have struck an impeccable balance…a melding of time-honored techniques with the integration of the newest technological advances in an effort to make this spectacular portfolio of small production cuvees. 

The Côte des Bar is home to a new wave of avant-garde Grower Producers that are raising the bar (get it?) of what it means to be Champagne, and yet, while Fluteau stands proudly as a peer – it is nevertheless important to recognize that the region would scarcely have any grower producers at all if not for the pioneering efforts of the region's early houses like Fluteau. This area wasn’t even considered as Champagne before 1927, thanks to the 1911 classification that excluded the entire Aube region and forced producers here to label their wines as “Champagne deuxième zone,” basically “second-class Champagne.”  When the great houses of Reims at long last acquiesced to include the region, they ensured that neither Grand Cru nor Premier Cru status was granted to the vineyards and villages of the Côte des Bar. It was a place to source fruit for furtively blending, sure, but no great wine could be actually produced there. My, how wrong they were!

This Retrospective bottling is a blend of 70% pinot noir and 30% chardonnay – with primary fermentation occurring entirely in 228-liter French oak barrels. The base of the cuvee stems from the 2019 harvest, with 10% of the estate’s perpetual reserve finishing the blend. The lightly golden wine explodes from the glass with sensations of golden apples and apricots, accompanied by highly perfumed and seductive aromas of lilacs and peonies. In the mouth, Japanese Umeboshi plums provide a slightly oxidative, very umami lead-off, followed by white peach and nectarines, then red cherries, saltwater taffy, and cider apples. Spice accents of clove and nutmeg arise on the finish, which uplifts with a bright and salty seaspray, and a slate-y, river rock minerality. This 93-point gem of a cuvee is a vinous, compact and intense wine, with a long and precise finish. Burgundy bowls are my choice for this wine, and don’t be afraid to give it a swirl and infuse it with air for optimum enjoyment – a savory wine for the sentient, undoubtedly!