New Arrivals from Champagne Tarlant!

We're proud to offer a full portfolio of Champagnes from Melanie and Benoit Tarlant, the 12th generation to be working the land under the Tarlant name. This is an historically important estate, as Tarlant was one of the earliest independent producers and Louis Tarlant was instrumental in creating and strenthening the Champagne AOC in the early 20th century. Melanie and Benoît are the real deal: their great understanding and respect of history, tradition and nature, coupled with their experimental, forward thinking tendencies, have been the driving force of some truly great, next level, terroir-centric Champagnes.

The estate consists of 14 hectares of vines within 31 lieu-dits of Pinot Noir (50%), Chardonnay (30%) and Pinot Meunier (20%), along with small amounts of Champagne's "forgotten"grapes" - Pinot Blanc, Arbane and Petit Meslier. From empirical observation, Benoît and Mélanie have singled out 63 parcels that they vinify individually each vintage, permitting unparalled precision in blending decisions for base and reserve wines, but also letting them highlight single vineyard expressions of their land.

In the cellar, the grapes are gently pressed and racked by gravity to Burgundian barrels, where each parcel ferments and ages individually. Malolactic fermentation almost never occurs but is not blocked: Benoît feels that through careful pressing, attention to temperature and the correct viticultural practices, Champagne's naturally cold climate gives them grapes with low PH and high acidity, a combo that does not incite malo. Sulfites are are only added in microscopic doses at press and intermittently to casks of reserve wine. The wines are never filtered.

In the vines, chemicals are never used and biodiversity is prioritized. Organic farming methods  have been used for the past two generations, and the entire estate is now certified. "Our father fought for grass in the vines and to stop having garbage from cities being thrown in the vines as a fertilizer. It took five years. That was his fight. Organics seems like the challenge of our generation." Vineyard work includes minimum soil disturbance, shallow plowing under the rows and natural grass cover in between the rows, herbotherapy treatments, Chablis pruning with Poussard method and green manure or organic fertilisers.

Beginning in the late 1970s, the vast majority of the production is bottled without dosage. While the idea of Brut Nature Champagne has slowly but surely gained momentum since the early 2000's, this was unheard of at the time. Representing 70% of the total production, "Zero Brut Nature" is the Tarlant's calling card and consists of a non vintage, no dosage wine made from equal parts Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay.  "Zero is a reflection of the four villages we work in and the goal is to express a Champagne without the external sugar masking the land's characteristics.” Zero Brut Nature Rosé is 50% Chardonnay/44% Pinot Noir/6% Pinot Meunier. The blending is a barrel-by-barrel, blind-tasting process; given that Tarlants' 60+ parcels are individually vinified, making the choices for both the rosé and white Zéro wines is an elaborate and extensive undertaking. The final rosé blend is typically around 75% current-vintage wine with 25% reserve wine, in this case the base being 2015. It was bottled in July 2016 and disgorged in February 2021 with zero dosage. 

Single vineyard cuvées:

2011 Base Brut Nature "BAM" 27% Pinot Blanc/27% Arbanne/46% Petit Meslier. "BAM!" is an acronym of these three relatively rare, low-yielding Champagne varieties. The vines were planted in 2003 on sandy, silica-rich limestone soils in the lieu-dit of Four à Chaux-Sablé in Oeuilly and are certified-organic like the rest of Tarlant's sites. This blanc des blancs is composed of the 2011 harvest with "perpetual reserve" beginning in 2007.  Disgorged in June, 2021, 900 btls produced.

2005 Brut Nature "La Lutétienne" 80% Chardonnay/20% Pinot Noir, from  “Mocque Tonneau," “Four à Chaux," “Le Métier” in Celles-lès-Condé and “Les Forgeottes" and “L’Enclume” in Œuilly featuring Lutetian limestone soils.  The wine was aged in barrel with no malolactic fermentation before being bottled in spring 2006. The bottles were aged sur lattes and disgorged in February 2020 with no dosage.

2004 Brut Nature "La Vigne D'Or" is a Blanc de Noirs from a parcel of Pinot Meunier planted in the sparnacian clay of the Vallée de la Marne. The vines are 65 years old and were planted by Benoît and Mélanie's paternal grandfather, Georges Tarlant. Disgorged in June 2021.

2004 Brut Nature La Vigne d'Antan" 100% Chardonnay. From a plot of ungrafted or non-greffée vines on very sandy soils in Oeuilly, planted by the Tarlants' grandfather, and unsurprisingly named "Les Sables." The name "Antan" means essentially "yesteryear," a reference to the historical roots of this bottling as well as the old-fashioned layering method called provignage by which the vineyard was propagated. The organically farmed fruit was hand-harvested and gently pressed; the juice was fermented with natural yeasts in stainless steel vats. The wine was aged in barrel with no malolactic fermentation before bottling in May 2005, disgorged in 2021.

2004 Brut Nature "Cuvee Louis Tarlant"  50%Chardonnay/50% Pinot Noir. Created by the Tarlants' parents back in 1982, the prestige cuvée Louis is named for Benoît’s and Melanie’s great-great-great grandfather. Louis was the first to bottle Tarlant estate wine (in 1928) and the one who planted this 0.9 hectare of selection massale Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (in 1946-48). The lieu-dit is named "Les Crayons" in reference to its particularly chalky make-up and is a flat site near the Marne in the Tarlant home village of Oeuilly that yields a "river wine," as the Tarlants refer to it, of fuller body and richer character. The wine was aged in barrel with no malolactic fermentation until bottling in 2005. Aged sur lattes until disgorgement with zero dosage in early 2021.

2002 Brut Nature "L'Etincelante" 57% Chardonnay/29% Pinot Noir/14% Pinot Meunier. Each year the Tarlants make a single multi-parcel wine intended to encapsulate that particular vintage: the name Etincelante evokes the “glimmering” nature of the sunny 2002 harvest, "a dream harvest" per Benoìt Tarlant. From six parcels across four villages on a mix of chalk, flint and limestone soils with vines averaging 40 years old. The juice ferments spontaneously with native yeasts in Burgundy barrels; the wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. L'Etincelante was bottled in 2003, disgorged in 2018 and received zero dosage.

Wines arrive Jan 31 please allow a few days before pick-up or shipping