Champagne Gallimard Père & Fils Blanc de Noirs Cuvée de Réserve Les Riceys Brut NV

Champagne Gallimard represents six generations of winemakers, dating back to 1930. The winery sits in the charming village of Les Riceys and remains one of our absolute favorite producers in the Côte des Bar. Some of the folks here at Last Bubbles had the chance to visit the property a while back – and actually stayed in a lovely stone house just across the street that Arnaud secured. After a grand tour of the vineyards, complete with an eye-opening discussion about the region’s history and Arnaud’s vision for the future, the team left with a vast understanding of the sincerity, energy, and passion behind all this producer puts out. And all of our contacts in the area have agreed – Arnaud Gallimard is the real deal and pours his heart into crafting some of the best Champagnes in the land!

This Blanc de Noirs – 100% Pinot Noir – is grown upon the same rarified limestone soils as Chablis, which is a short distance away from this warm, southern region of Champagne. Pinot Noir tends to thrive here, ripening to perfection and creating amiable, complex, and beautifully finessed bubbly of the finest order. 

The sensual flavors unfold from the glass with wildly fresh peaches, red cherries, plums, pink grapefruits, crumbled chalk, wild alpine herbs, and a prominent, warming essence of just-baked croissants throughout. Rich and weighty on the palate, it has a slight toffee finish to accentuate the smashing array of fruits and yeasty layers. With 70% of this cuvee coming from the 2021 harvest, the rest was pulled from their impressive reserve Pinot Noir dating back to 2009, making for an ultimately balanced, layered, and lip-smacking crowd-pleaser! Which, I suppose, means you’ll need to snatch up a few to go around! For this price, it’s really quite a simple choice.