- The Avize 'Champ Caïn', from the 2008 vintage in Magnum is rare and incredible. Jacquesson Harvest details here Just 6 available!
- Iconic house whose original founder Adolphe Jacquesson created the first Muselet or cage over the cork, to stop them escaping
- Run by the Chiquet family today and they carve out some of the finest examples of champagne
The terroir of Avize is so all-consuming that you can literally smell the violent tidal wave of heaving salt minerality coming, surging with the full force of heightened 2008 acidity.
This cuvée is a salty sea breeze, a steamy whiff of bath salts heralding an intricately crystalline salt structure. The frothing, energetic interplay between chalk minerality and high-tensile acid line is captivating, amplified by subtle barrel texture and long lees age that gently massage the cut of Avize.
Nine years on lees has laid down great complexity of roast nuts and spice, without for a moment interrupting its pristine acid drive and exceptional persistence. Its tightly clenched core is a little unsettled by the phenolic grip, subtle toastiness and dusty notes of cork oak, the first vintage to be matured under cork.
Technical details:
- 100% chardonnay; due-south-facing single vineyard of 1.3 hectares at the bottom of the slope of Avize, planted in 1962 on surface chalk; vinified and matured in oak casks on lees; 2.5g/L dosage; 8296 bottles and 402 Magnums
- Bottled May 2009 and disgorged April 2018
- Aged under cork for 9 years