Elise Dechannes Champagne Chardonnay 2015 750ml

A 0.05-hectare plot, forty-year-old vines and a sandstone amphora: in Pinot Noir country, Élise Dechannes makes a Chardonnay her US importer could buy only 36 bottles of.

Nouvelles Sélections, the Japanese importer, lists this cuvée as a blanc de blancs from Chardonnay grown in Les Riceys on a parcel of just 0.05 hectares of Kimmeridgian soil, planted with vines averaging forty years of age. The wine is vinified in a sandstone amphora, spends five years in bottle before release and carries zero dosage. In Dechannes's own words, as quoted by the importer, vinifying in sandstone brings out the freshness of the fruit and the minerality, and makes the finish very long. The importer adds that she does not destem and ferments, as a rule, with indigenous yeasts only.

Les Riceys is the southernmost village of Champagne, bordering the Chablis district, and Dechannes says every one of her Champagnes comes from her own vines there, on the same thick Kimmeridgian soil as Chablis, which she credits for a saline minerality. Her family has grown grapes in the village since 1905 and holds five hectares; after Reims Business School and a banking career she took over in 2008. Farming has been organic since 2015 (Ecocert 2018) and biodynamic since 2019 (Demeter 2021).

The move to organics followed her divorce: as she tells the importer, she had two children to raise alone, had to stay healthy and had to look after the five hectares that were her only livelihood. Her father was furious and told her to give the vines back; now, she says, he helps her in them every day.

In the glass

The producer's site describes its Chardonnay cuvée, in the 2011 release shown there, as very pale yellow, with acacia, jasmine and lemon blossom on the nose and a creamy palate of white fruit, citrus and orange; that release was selected by Gault et Millau 2015. The Source Imports, writing in 2021 about the 2012 Chardonnay Brut Nature, found forward Chardonnay power at first, narrowing and becoming pointed and refined with time open. We have found no published note on the 2015 itself.

When to open

Our suggestion, following The Source's observation that this cuvée refines with air: open it an hour ahead or decant briefly, and serve cool rather than ice-cold.

At the table

Our suggestion: raw or lightly cooked shellfish, white fish with lemon, and the saline, chalky dishes that suit a zero-dosage wine from Chablis-type soil.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Champagne Elise Dechannes (producer website); Nouvelles Sélections (Japanese importer); The Source Imports; Gault & Millau; Bottles Japan label photo