Elise Dechannes Champagne Essentielle 2020 750ml

Dechannes cut her family's 75,000-bottle output to 15,000; Essentielle, vinified plainly in steel, is the cuvée meant to show Les Riceys Pinot Noir without disguise.

Nouvelles Sélections, the importer that brings Dechannes to Japan, lists Essentielle as a blanc de noirs from Pinot Noir grown entirely in Les Riceys: two hectares of Kimmeridgian soil, vines averaging 45 years, fermentation in stainless-steel tank, four years in bottle before release and no dosage. The importer also explains the name. Essentielle means essential, and the plain steel vinification is intended to put the character of the grape itself in front of the drinker. Her exporter Paris Wine Company and the producer's own page both record the cuvée as 100 percent Pinot Noir.

Dechannes bottles each cuvée from a single harvest rather than a blended base, so the 2020 carries that year alone. A French collector on the wine forum LPDV wrote in December 2022 that his bottle of the 2020 had been disgorged in October 2022 and was tauter than the 2019 he had opened before it; on his third bottle, in August 2023, he noted the same freshness and tension without any lack of substance. The retailer Pleasure Wine lists the 2020 as Brut Nature at 12 percent alcohol.

The estate is five hectares in Les Riceys, Champagne's southernmost village on the Chablis border, farmed by the Dechannes family since 1905. Élise, a Reims Business School graduate who spent years in banking, took over in 2008, went fully organic in 2015 (Ecocert 2018) and biodynamic in 2019 (Demeter 2021). She told her importer that ending chemical treatments changed the soil first, then made the vines more disease-resistant.

In the glass

Pleasure Wine's note on the 2020 describes a pale yellow colour with a persistent fine bead, a nose of green apple, pear and white flowers over a mineral undertone, and a palate led by lime and grapefruit, light in texture and crisp on the finish. The LPDV taster saw an almost rosé tinge in the colour and found fresh yellow-fruit aromatics. The producer's own page for an earlier release, the 2013 harvest, speaks of straw yellow, lemon and orange zest, a light, tangy and pure palate and a soft finish.

When to open

Pleasure Wine judged the 2020 at its peak when it listed it; the LPDV taster called it the ideal aperitif wine and doubted it gains much from ageing. Our suggestion: drink now to 2028 at 8 to 10 °C.

At the table

Pleasure Wine pairs it with fresh oysters, goat cheese canapés or a citrus salad; the LPDV taster drank his as an aperitif.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Nouvelles Sélections (Japanese importer); Champagne Élise Dechannes (producer website); Paris Wine Company; Pleasure Wine; LPDV forum (Laurent, Dec 2022 / Aug 2023); Bottles Japan label photo