🍾 Canard-Duchêne Brut Essentiel

Canard-Duchêne Brut Essentiel is a non-vintage white Champagne in the Brut style from the house Canard-Duchêne in Ludes on the Montagne de Reims, part of its Essentiel range.

According to the house, it is its signature cuvée: a blend of wines of the year and reserve wines centred on Pinot Noir.

The house Canard-Duchêne was founded in 1868 in Ludes, on the Montagne de Reims, by the cooper Victor Canard and the grower Léonie Duchêne.

The boundaries of the Champagne area were set by a law of 6 May 1919: parts of the Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne departments. The designation’s specification allows seven grape varieties, dominated by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; grapes are picked as whole bunches, that is by hand, and the yield is limited to 10,400 kg per hectare.

According to the Comité Champagne, Champagne is served chilled to 8–10 °C, and bottles are kept in the dark at a steady 10–15 °C, without vibration. An opened bottle is best closed with a sparkling-wine stopper and kept cold.

It is sold under the protected designation of origin Champagne: the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, and the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage). Brut on the label is an EU sugar term: less than 12 g of sugar per litre.

Why it matters to you. According to the house, it comes in: a 0.75 l bottle. No year on the label means it is not a vintage wine: the house may blend wines from different harvests. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.