NV Laherte Frères Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature Champagne France 750 ml

Ordering a bottle of Laherte Champagne is like a sly wink to a seasoned somm—a sign that you, too, know the best.

Aurélien Laherte is making some of the most exciting wines in France, which is why they’re featured on the most discerning, MICHELIN-starred wine lists from The French Laundry to Eleven Madison Park. Critic Antonio Galloni of Vinous is a huge fan of this 100% no-dosage Chardonnay grown on Laherte’s best parcels on the south slopes of Épernay. “The Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs remains one of my personal favorites for its quality and value,” he wrote in his last review, calling the wine “wonderfully precise and nuanced.”

Aurélien Laherte is the seventh generation of his family to steward their 11 hectares of vineyards—and he’s one of the rising stars of the grower-Champagne movement. The Laherte family controls and farms every bit of their land themselves. Ownership is split among four members of Aurelien’s immediate family, for bureaucratic reasons, and that precludes the wines from carrying the Récoltant-Manipulant designation—but the ground-to-glass care is very much there. 

The family’s precise control over their vineyards especially matters for the style of wine that Laherte has become known best for: low-to-no dosage Champagne. Extra Brut and Brut Nature—what most Laherte wines are bottled as—see little if any sugar added at the time of disgorgement, and dialing down the sweetness means there’s no place for imperfect grapes to hide. Making Champagne like this is incredibly difficult, as it requires the fruit to be absolutely pristine and perfectly ripe at harvest. The wine is given careful, hands-on attention throughout the vinification and aging process, which is why Laherte’s production stays tiny.