Georges Laval Garennes Extra Brut (2020)

The Georges Laval winery has been run by Vincent Laval since 1996, although the family's history goes back several generations as winegrowers located in the village of Cumieres, near the heart of Champagne. Vincent's champagnes have their own style: fermentation in old 228-litre Burgundian barrels, no filtering or fining, no dosage or minimal sugar before bottling, minimal addition of sulphur (about 20 mg/l). Garennes Extra Brut is made with Meunier and some Chardonnay, in this case labelled Extra Brut with a dosage of just 1 gram of sugar per litre. The base of this wine comes from the 2020 vintage, but to add complexity it is blended with reserve wines from 2013 to 2019. Degorged in July 2022. Our impression of this wine: very citric, with lots of lemon and grapefruit aromas, but also showing delicate notes of pear, nectarine and quince, with undertones of nuts and toasted brioche. On the palate it is smooth with its tiny but persistent bubbles, with very good acidity and tension, along with somewhat vertical body, all of this is what makes it so special.