🍾 Nicolas Feuillatte Réserve Exclusive Premier Cru Extra-Brut

Nicolas Feuillatte Réserve Exclusive Premier Cru Extra-Brut is a non-vintage white Champagne in the Extra Brut style from the house Nicolas Feuillatte in Chouilly, in the Côte des Blancs, part of its Réserve Exclusive range.

According to the house, the blend is 33 % Pinot Noir, 33 % Pinot Meunier and 33 % Chardonnay, aged in the cellar for at least 3 years. According to the house, the grapes come from Premier Cru land in five territories: the south of the Côte des Blancs, the Coteaux d'Épernay, the south and the north of the Montagne de Reims, and the Montagne Ouest; the wine is vinified in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks.

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). Extra Brut on the label is an EU sugar term: 0 to 6 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.