Today, Chigny-les-Roses is a postcard-perfect Champagne village in the Montagne de Reims, which produces some of our favorite Premier Cru bubbles. (Seriously, if you’re booking a trip to Champagne, make sure this village is one of your stops.) The J. Lassalle estate has grown to over 60 plots, covering about 16 hectares, planted to pinot meunier, chardonnay and pinot noir.

Champagne J. Lassalle was born during WWII, its very creation an act of defiance that showcases the spirit of Champagne’s vignerons. When Jules (the J of J. Lassalle) passed away in 1982, his widow, and then his daughter, and now his granddaughter, Angéline Templier, stepped up to lead this great house. Their now 28-year-old tradition of “une femme, un esprit, un style” ("one woman, one spirit, one style") has become a motto of the house, and these women are the modern-day warriors that revive the legends of the great Champagne matriarchs of centuries past.

For this particular submission that achieved the rare Special Club status, the blend is 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay – not a trace of pinot meunier to be had (regardless of Lassalle’s majority meunier plantings). The individual lots are fermented and aged separately, resting in barrel for anywhere from 8 to 10 months before blending and bottling. The time on the lees lasts for a full nine years – quite remarkable – with only about 550 cases total! 

This 2013 Brut is impeccably structured and focused, and showcases an intense and linear vein of minerality, and undeniable, overarching freshness. One would be hard pressed to guess 13 years  have passed since harvest. The aromas leap from the glass with crushed chalk, river rocks, and spearmint – all uplifted delicately by a whisper of delicate star jasmine. On the palate, crisp and cool citrus notes of lemon and lime appear, with a crunchy bite of Granny Smith apple for good measure. Far tighter and more mineral than the plusher 2012 vintage – this is a wine of sheer pedigree and bearing, and one that should develop fantastically over the next several years. And we’ve got this large format bottling for the best price in the USA!