NV Bourgeois Boulonnais Blanc de Blanc Premier Cru Champagne 750 ml

In a recent vintage report, Decanter listed four “villages that resonate with significance like few others in Champagne.” The first three were the world-renowned Grand Crus Avize, Oger, and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.

The fourth was the Vertus, where Bourgeois-Boulonnais has been tending chalk-lined hillside vineyards for decades. 

These Côte des Blancs villages contain Champagne’s most coveted Chardonnay vines—which have long produced exceptional wines from famous houses. That includes names like Bollinger, Roederer, Taittinger, and even Bordeaux powerhouse Barons de Rothschild, who have all staked claims to vineyard plots in the Premier Cru village of Vertus. 

Yet some of the purest expressions of any Champagne terroir come from the long-standing grower-producers, who have been making wine from the same plots over generations—like Bourgeois-Boulonnais. Their Blanc de Blancs, grown on 50-year-old vines, is a prime example of why Decanter listed Vertus alongside Champagne’s most iconic villages. 

This is a lively and vibrant wine, with layered aromas of white flowers, citrus blossom, Asian pear, marzipan, and apple. The palate is defined by crisp acidity that’s persistent but not overwhelming, ferrying fruit and floral notes to a lingering finish. It’s wholly satisfying and endlessly fresh. 

Vines aged 50 or more years are uncommon in Champagne, and they’re coveted for the tiny amounts of concentrated, complex Chardonnay they eke out. Over several generations, Bourgeois-Boulonnais has watched these vines mature, noting the subtle changes from vintage to vintage. Many illustrious producers can lay claim to Vertus’ terroir, but no one knows how to channel this particular plot like Bourgeois-Boulonnais—and it shows in their pure, floral, and refreshing Blanc de Blancs.