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Two Laherte Frères Champagnes, Back on the Shelf at $54.99
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| Aurélien Laherte has spent the better part of two decades turning his family's Chavot estate into one of the reference points for grower Champagne — organic farming, heritage varieties, and vins clairs raised in tank, foudre, and used Burgundy barrel. Two of his cuvées are back on the shelf, and both are $54.99: the Extra Brut "Ultradition," a Meunier-led blend built on 2018, and the Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature, all Chardonnay with essentially no dosage. Different arguments for the same house style. |
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Critic reviews
| 92 pts · John Gilman · May 2023 Aurélien Laherte’s Ultradition non-vintage Extra Brut is composed from a cépages of sixty percent pinot meunier, thirty percent chardonnay and ten percent pinot noir. Sixty percent of the vins clairs are barrel-fermented, go through partial malo and the cuvée includes forty percent reserve wines. The current release is from the base year of 2018 and was given three and a half years aging sur latte prior to its disgorgement in September of 2022 and finished with a dosage of 4.5 grams per liter. The wine delivers a refined aromatic constellation of white peach, apple, bread dough, chalky soil tones and a delicate topnote of meunier flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, full-bodied and complex, with a lovely core, excellent balance and grip, refined mousse and a long, focused and classy finish. I love Aurélien Laherte’s wines and regret I do not get to taste the full range of his cuvées anymore. |
| 91 pts · James Suckling · August 2022 Cloves and dried flower stems with lemon rind, chamomile and green apples. Medium-bodied with lovely fruit and a creamy texture. Delicious finish. 60% pinot meunier, 30% chardonnay and 10% pinot noir. Dosage 4,5g/L. Disgorged in February 2022. |
| 90 pts · Vinous · November 2023 The NV Extra Brut Ultradition is a very pretty, gracious wine consisting of a blend of 60% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir from eight vineyard sources. Perfumed floral and spice notes give the Ultradition lovely brightness to match its mid-weight, notably vinous personality. Orchard fruit, chamomile, dried herbs, mint and crushed rocks are all wonderfully expressive, if a bit light. This is an especially nuanced edition. Dosage is 4.5 grams per liter. Disgorged: March, 2023. (AG) |
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| K&L Notes |
| We were only allocated 24 bottles of this. William Kelley of Wine Advocate writes, "Producing some 150,000 bottles per year, Aurélien Laherte took direction of this important estate in the village of Chavot, in the Côteaux Sud d'Epernay, in 2005. Step by step, he's moved toward organic viticulture, experimenting with cover crops and higher canopies, replanting heritage varieties and updating the winery facilities. The vins clairs are now vinified in tank, foudre and barrel—the latter purchased used from Beaune's Benjamin Leroux—and the wines are dosed with MCR and closed with Diam Mytik, of which Laherte was an early adopter. These are chiseled, characterful wines, founded on good farming, and they represent fine values in the world of contemporary grower Champagne." (09/2021) |
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| K&L Notes |
| Founded in 1889 in Chavot-Courcourt, Laherte Frères is a family-run Champagne grower now led by seventh-generation vigneron Aurélien Laherte. This Blanc de Blancs is made from Chardonnay, while Brut Nature denotes a Champagne with less than 3 grams per liter of residual sugar and no sugar added after secondary fermentation. |
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