Hand picked, bone dry, flavoursome new champagne arrives

Hand picked grapes from vines with an average age of 30 years, fermentation in vats, foudres and barrels, aging on fine lees with partial malolactic fermentation and a dry dosage of 4.5 grams per litre. This is the skinny on our newest champagne here at Regional, which has already impressed our staff, who are excited about having an ultra dry bubbly from the world's HQ of great sparkling wine, namely, the Champagne region in France.

This wine was also, impressively, disgorged by hand. That means, the lees sediment (following the second fermentation, in bottle) were removed with the crown seal by hand and then the wine was topped up - again, by hand. This is a pain staking process where time is of the essence in order to retain all that precious CO2 that has dissolved into the wine to give it such a fine bead; the bubbles we love and adore in champagne and high quality sparkling wine. It is unusual to disgorge by hand these days when mechanisation rules, even in the world's most romantic sparkling wine region but hand disgorgement can mean that the producers get that bit closer to their wines. 

The blend of this champagne is an interesting one too. It is 60% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir. Grapes in this wine are grown on seven different vineyards across the Côteaux Sud d'Épernay and Vallée de la Marne. Intense rich flavours come from the 40% reserve wine in this blend; all of which was aged on lees in barrel. This portion contributes a weight and a full body to the wine as well as complexity and multi layered flavours. 

You will find Champagne Laherte Fréres Extra-Brut Ultradition on the top shelf of our champagne section in store...

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