Champagne Goulin-Roualet Cuvée d’Or Brut Premier Cru NV

Goulin-Roualet is a focused artisan producer making some of the best, mostly unknown cuvées in Champagne today! This cuvée is a traditional blend of all three noble Champagne varieties, with a base 2019 vintage. The wine also undergoes malolactic fermentation before blending and aging on the lees in bottle for an additional three years. With a Brut dosage, this “golden cuvée” shines with a bright richness and tremendous depth – perhaps the most layered and complex wine we’ve tasted yet from this portfolio!

We have a soft spot for family gigs, but might have even more love for noble father-daughter operations in a field that’s been historically male-dominated. This one is based in Sacy, the small Premier Cru village just south of Reims and within the northern reaches of the Montagne de Reims. Christophe is always around, lending a helping hand, though his daughter, Marine, runs the day-to-day winemaking aspects at this point. The facility is small, yet efficient, with just enough tanks, vats, and barrels to make the whole of their 11-cuvée portfolio – most of which scarcely grow above 150 cases in total production. 

Although a 97-point score should help drum up some well-merited attention, we're forever thrilled to support this off-the-radar house. Cuvee d’Or is a golden-hued wine that explodes with nutty and toasty notes of fresh-baked brioche, hazelnuts, and pecans, with a bright and piercing accent of lemon verbena. The flavors range from sour cherry to green apple to golden plum – with a zesty effervescence driving the wine to a deep and charged finish. The wine expands further still with time in the glass, and for such a young wine, the integration here is simply admirable! I can’t recommend this enough – but we don’t have nearly as much as we’d like, so trust me when I encourage you to move quickly on your selection! I have a hunch you’ll want at minimum a few of these for your own!