Charles Dufour Vin de Comptoir Coteaux Champenois Blanc 2021 750ml

Lot L.21.82 says it plainly: the 2021 harvest poured into a reserve the Dufour family has kept topped up since 1982, then bottled still, without bubbles.

Vin de Comptoir is the still wine of Charles Dufour's Bulles de Comptoir range, made at Landreville in the Côte des Bar, the Aube end of Champagne. The label reads Coteaux Champenois Blanc, Appellation d'Origine Protégée, and under it two words that explain the bottle: assemblage perpétuel. The Japanese importer Nouvelles Sélections gives the make-up as 60% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Blanc, drawn from a solera running from 1982 to 2021, grown on Kimmeridgian soil from vines averaging 35 years, and fermented and raised in a single 25-hectolitre foudre. Cave des Sacres in Reims describes the same lot as the 2021 harvest joined to a perpetual reserve begun in 1982, from the Ource valley.

The Pinot Blanc is the family thread. According to Nouvelles Sélections, growers in the Aube planted the variety after the war, Yves Dufour started a 100% Pinot Blanc cuvée in 1999, and his son Charles took over in 2004 with the aim of putting the Aube's Pinot Blanc in front of the world. All parcels moved to organic and biodynamic farming from 2007, with ECOCERT certification in 2010; the importer lists the holdings at 15 hectares. The vineyards lie around Landreville, Celles-sur-Ource and Essoyes on limestone-clay of Late Jurassic origin, and the cellar rule is wild-yeast fermentation without added sulphur, malolactic completed, no fining and no filtration, with the reserve kept in foudre as a perpetual blend since 2010.

The name matters too. Bulles de Comptoir means bubbles at the bar counter, the importer explains, and the idea is pleasure shared; Vin de Comptoir is the same idea with the bubbles removed. The label states 11.5% alcohol and names the producer as Les Vins du 7, the company under which Dufour bottles his own grapes.

In the glass

Cave des Sacres, the Reims shop that lists this lot, finds a very subtle nose of white flowers and vanilla over a mineral base, then a palate that opens on extreme freshness before settling into cereal, apple, pear and vanilla; it calls the wine fresh, expressive and evolving. At 11.5% on the label, this is a light-bodied still white whose weight comes from the old reserve rather than from ripeness.

When to open

Cave des Sacres suggests serving at 12 °C. Our suggestion: pour it a few minutes ahead, since the same source notes it changes as it opens, and keep bottles cool and dark for the next several years.

At the table

Our suggestion: oysters, raw white fish, roast poultry or a wedge of Comté, dishes that let the freshness and cereal notes lead.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Nouvelles Sélections (Japanese importer, tech note and label packshot); Cave des Sacres, Reims; champagne7.com; Maruyamaya