Zesty, toasty Côte des Blancs Premier Cru bubbly

- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
2017 Champagne Mandois Blanc de Blanc Premier Cru Champagne 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
Bracing, Classic Côte des Blancs Premier Cru
When our judging panel tasted the 2017 Mandois Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Champagne, we knew it was a perfect choice for Wine Access members.
Established only six years after the launch of Ruinart (the oldest sparkling Champagne house), Champagne Mandois is a bastion of tradition and quality in the Premier Cru-rated town of Pierry, just south of Épernay. Nearly three quarters of their wines come from vineyards that they have owned for generations. Today the winery is run by Claude Mandois, the ninth-generation scion of the house.
Chardonnay fared best in the 2017 vintage, compared to Pinot Noir and Meunier. According to one prominent winemaker, that’s because the grape ripened faster than Meunier and Pinot Noir, achieving good levels of ripeness and relatively high potential alcohol, while having few issues with botrytis thanks to its thick skins.
This excellent Blanc de Blanc Premier Cru comes exclusively from the Côte des Blancs, from the villages of Chouilly (Grand Cru for Chardonnay), plus the Premier Cru villages of Vertus and Pierry. It spent 60 months on the lees, giving it a long time to develop beautiful toasty complexity, and was shipped with a modest six grams of sugar per liter. It has marvelous breadth on the palate, thanks to being partially aged in 600-liter puncheons, not unlike how Bollinger and Krug barrel-age their top wines.
Six years after harvest, this wine is drinking beautifully, but will certainly thrive in the cellar for at least another five years.