N.V. Suenen Champagne, Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs, Extra Brut Champagne, Oiry, France.
Aurelien Suenen, based in the famed Côtes des Blancs area of Champagne, has been helped along the way by amazing people, and was truly inspired by Anselme Selosse, since his father died in 2009, and he was left as the heir to his family’s legacy and history, which has led to his own success in making some excellent and individual Champagne bottlings like this one. This bright yellow/gold hued w Oiry Extra Brut Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs is lovely, luxurious and extremely dry in style, which I really enjoy, with a nice tension of tension, chalky notes and is finely aromatic, showing off green apple, lemon, dried pineapple, golden fig fruit, along with loads of brioche, hazelnut, crystallized ginger, clove and mineral tones. I learned that Suenen has started working with foudre and demi-muids from the highly sought after Austrian cooper, Stockinger, used for both fermentations and aging now and allows the wine to age about 9 months on the lees before bottling, where it matures over two years on the yeast. That allowed to a richer mouth feel, toast and more complexity, than some earlier offerings, as seen here in this Oiry Extra Brut that has some serious and impressive presence on the palate and make these Extra Bruts sublime with a full meal.
Aurelien Suenen, as I’ve mentioned in my prior reviews, is a rising star in grower and terroir driven Champagne, he is really crafting some magnificent estate sparkling wines, his small family house in the village of Cramant, all in Grand Cru sites with vines set in ancient chalky limestone. All of the Suenen plots are farmed with great care by hand and 100% organically, I understand, also he in fact practices all biodynamic methods now. Like some of the modern stars of estate grown Champagne he believes the Champagne is made in the vineyard and he wants to showcase its unique character and make terroir Champagne. The achieve his goals, Suenen uses native yeasts in some lots, has small yields in the vineyards, and his base wines spends at least 36 months on it’s lees, and he does use some wood and enameled tuns, instead of all stainless to allow more layers and texture. Suenen currently is only bottling Blanc des Blancs Champagne, all Extra Bruts with very low low dosage, however he does have small amounts of Pinot Noir and Meunier that he farms as well, and the Meunier looks to be part of the future plans here. This Meunier is from the La Grande Vigne vineyard, a 65 year old plot of ungrafted Pinot Meunier that is located in the village of Montigny-sur-Vesle, which looks likely to be a star single varietal bottling to keep an eye out for. I highly recommend the Suenen Champagne bubbly now and I look forward to following this serious grower producer over the long term.
($70 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive