Champagne Vouette et Sorbée Fidèle Blanc de Noirs NV (Base 20, Disg. Oct 2022)

Fidèle is 100% Pinot Noir grown on Kimmeridgian limestone soils. This includes roughly 5% reserve wine from a perpetual blend started in 2001 and stored in two large old foudres. The Fonnet vineyard, located in a small, enclosed valley, forms the heart of this cuvée. Sorbée provides much of the balance, topped off by Châtel—a rocky, limestone-rich vineyard with 20+-year-old Pinot Noir vines. Overall, the vines for this wine average 30 years of age. After pressing in a traditional vertical Coquard press, Fidèle is vinified without added yeast or chaptalisation in used Burgundy barrels for 10 months (these came from Domaine Arnaud Ente in Meursault). The wine then spends 15 to 20 months on lees in bottle after secondary fermentation and is disgorged with zero dosage. Gautherot describes this as “a dangerous wine”—the bottle disappears so quickly—and this description could not be more apt. Lovers of Vouette et Sorbée should get excited!