Champagne houses don’t launch new wines every day, let alone the wines that are the staple of their house. We’re in full re-brand territory mofos, as Laurent-Perrier replaces their Brut NV (the fifth biggest-selling Champagne in the world) with this brand new offering, and things are looking up. Very up. This is the first new wine introduced by Laurent-Perrier in over thirty years. They’ve spent the last fifteen years working on finessing La Cuvee, making sure it was ready to lead their brand into the future. This has been created by going beyond the known, and liaising with brand new growers (including some Premier Cru vineyards) to create the blend. The increase in chardonnay (double the average for a house style) and lees time (average four years!) makes for a bright, generous and complex style with great finesse and freshness.
It was a winner at the Tasting Bench, too. “Briochy and textured, but zippy and fresh. Kinda apple strudel-y, with lovely clean acidity,” said Nic, one of our Wine Dealers.
And you can definitely smell the four years on lees. It’s got beautiful flavour and mouthfeel, and I know that texture’s from the extra time in bottle as the grapes were whole bunch pressed. This gave the wine its finesse and its name, because the cuvee is first press - so it has minimal skin contact, which means very little in the way of phenolics (white wine talk for tannins, really).
“Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut Champagne NV- this is a great power play to your father in law, bring a bottle or two along for the Christmas table and casually mention it’s Premier Cru Champagne.” – Kieran, Head of Finance at the ‘fo.
