Champagne Suenen Oiry Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru (Base 20 Disg. Jul 23)

2019 base with 45% reserve wines from 2013 to 2018. Together with Suenen’s single-vineyard offering (La Cocluette), these represent the only pure Oiry wines on the market. This is drawn from just 1.5 hectares split between five separate parcels. The vines are planted in Oiry’s compact, white Campanian chalk soils. From Le Champ Braux planted in 1955 to La Cocluette planted in 1987 and 1999, the average age of the vines is now 45 years. These vineyards lie at the base of the slope where only a little topsoil sits above hard, chalky bedrock. In La Cocluette, for example, the soils are only 50cm thick.

The combination of this chalk’s austere, mineral impact and Suenen’s low yield/ripe fruit philosophy produces a scintillatingly tense, coiled and stony wine. “Tonic” is the word Suenen uses to refer to this wine’s unique personality. “The wines from Oiry set themselves apart because of their saline expression, full of freshness,” explains Suenen. His wine is a study in minerality—the wine is rocky, vibrant, saline and vibrantly fresh. Creamy depths (from 30 months’ aging on lees) enfold the wine’s structural and mineral qualities and keep you coming back for more. In short, this is everything you would want from Grand Cru Côtes des Blancs, and represents a unique opportunity to taste Oiry’s distinctive, rocky terroir.

The base wine fermented naturally and aged for nine months in the same vessels—enamelled tank (50%) and seasoned Burgundy oak barrels and demi-muid (used at least six times prior). No fining, no filtration, no cold stabilisation. The wine was disgorged in 2023 (magnums and jeroboams were disgorged as per the details above), with a dosage of 4 g/L.