Champagne Savart & Drémont Père & Fils Éphémère 011 Extra Brut Premier Cru NV

Apart from his day job of crafting rare Champagnes under his eponymous label, Frédéric Savart started this project in 2014 to highlight and feature some of Champagne's less famous sites. Vineyards that were underachieving – according to him, at least – and in need of a skilled hand and a branding nudge. He partnered with Phillipe Drémont – a small house with holdings in the Grand Crus of the Côte des Blancs (Avize, Oger, and Le Mesnil) – and they began scouring properties willing to allow this new team to make a one-off production of Champagne, from these unique sites, in extremely limited quantities to be labeled and sold under the name Éphémère (meaning “short-lived”). Each cuvée gets a number, identifying this bottling as the 11th release under this partnership.

Fred consults on the farming and the harvest – guiding the fermentations to achieve the maximum quality. The aging occurs in the Drémont cellars in Sillery, in the Marne Department, where careful aging over the years is determined on a case-by-case basis – through rigorous tasting and dosage trials by the team. For this cuvée, the wine is a base of the 2016 vintage, and all Pinot Noir comes from Premier Cru vineyards in Petite Montagne de Reims. The wine is aged on the lees for a full 36 months, with a judicious dosage of 3.5 grams per liter.

The result is one of the most generous wines I’ve tasted from Champagne – in the best possible way. Almost copper in color, the perlage is robust and persistent with tiny, abundant bubbles and a spectacular texture. The aromas come with toasted brioche buns and Fuji apple, and the mouthfeel is broad and expansive – bringing lemon curd, pink grapefruit, crushed raspberry, apple blossom, peanut toffee, and leesy parmesan rind with an underlying mineral current. Extremely well done, and impossibly hard to find, especially at this price. Don’t hesitate to make this cult-y cool Champagne yours!