🍾 Nicolas Feuillatte Grand Cru Millésime Blanc de Noirs 2016

Nicolas Feuillatte Grand Cru Millésime Blanc de Noirs 2016 is the 2016 release of Grand Cru Millésime Blanc de Noirs by the house Nicolas Feuillatte, a vintage white Champagne.

According to the house, it is made exclusively of Pinot Noir from classified Grands Crus of the Montagne de Reims (Verzy and Verzenay in the north, Bouzy and Aÿ in the south), grown on chalk, and aged in the cellar for at least 6 years.

Nicolas Feuillatte is the brand of a growers’ cooperative in Chouilly: the Centre Vinicole de la Champagne, founded in 1972, bought the brand, created in 1976, in 1986.

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). Check the label for the sugar term (brut, extra brut and so on): the house does not state it on the wine's page.

Why it matters to you. The year on the label is the harvest year, so different years of the same line are different wines. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.