Champagne Marteaux Guillaume L'Indigene Extra Brut NV

We’ve made it no secret that we are enormous fans of Champagne Marteaux Guillaume, and it’s thrilling to see his efforts rewarded here with an incredible 98-point score. Guillaume works all of his vineyards following the strictest of organic and biodynamic methods, following the lead of the seasons and the moon, and speaking of his vines as though they are people… his friends, really. If they’re stressed or overworked, he offers them hand-crafted natural elixirs to heal. He listens to and observes them with painstaking precision in order to understand the best time for harvest. He even has an apothecary – shelves lined with foraged roots, dried herbs, and minerals, each destined to become tinctures that protect individual vines from disease without a drop of conventional chemistry. This is someone who farms with intention.

His home village of Bonneil is virtually flat and runs along the right bank of the Marne River, though the vineyards hug its edges on a steep slope that horseshoes around the village to the other side of the river. The vines thrive atop clay-silt, clay-limestone, marl, and clay soils with a vein of sand crossing the top, providing a diverse foundation for the grapes to flourish and develop rich complexities. Pinot Meunier is Guillaume's calling, and L'Indigène showcases the grape sensationally. Sourced from the 2017 harvest, it blends 50% fresh fruit with 50% from his perpetual estate reserve of Meunier, then ages on the lees for over five years. It was disgorged in December 2022 with a deliberate dosage of just 5 g/L – Guillaume wanted the wine to speak for itself, without the cosmetic additions that can obscure a wine's true character.

The final wine is extraordinary, with a powerful, floral nose of peonies and roasted hazelnuts, threaded with iron and a whisper of saltwater taffy. On the palate, it's brooding and substantial, lifted by a fine, tingling minerality before grilled lemon, black plum, black cherry, and malted chocolate roll through. Clean yet savory. Fresh yet rich. Beautifully, thought-provokingly complex. For a 98-point Champagne sneaking in under $50, this is a bottle that simply shouldn't be passed up. Marteaux Guillaume is a name you'll be hearing more of – make sure you're along for the ride from the start!