NV Guy Mea L’Assemblage Premier Cru Extra Brut Champagne 750 ml

The Montagne de Reims is the beating heart of Champagne.

Home to a slew of Grand and Premier Cru villages, the area is renowned for its Pinot Noir-based wines, which are often richer and more lyrical than the Côte de Blancs—and that’s where the dynamic Domaine Guy Mea is based.

Mea is a rising star in the region—they boast generations of prime land-holdings across prime Premier and Grand Cru sites, and, since Sophie Milesi took over her family winery in 2014, an exceptionally talented winemaker as well.

The change since her arrival has been marked. Not only has she pushed the farming towards organics—abandoning herbicides in favor of mechanical weeding (a rarity in Champagne) and forgoing chemical pesticides—but also refining the winemaking in search of increased elegance and complexity, and vinifying each of their 27 tiny parcels separately for maximum blending flexibility.

Their L’Assemblage Extra Brut is a calling-card for the estate, showing off Sophie’s persistence and dedication. It’s made only from Premier and Grand Cru grapes, and aged for a full ten months in tank before the initial bottling—longer than is typical for the region. After nearly three years in tirage, it’s then given a nice low dosage after disgorgement to preserve its crisp vibrancy.

This is Pinot Noir-driven, balanced by nearly a third Chardonnay to provide lift and verve, and it features beautiful flavors of white peaches and viennoiserie, balanced by a hint of exotic spicing. A brilliant bottle with gougeres or smoked-salmon rillettes.