Champagne Vouette & Sorbee - Extrait 2011

Region: Cote de Bar / Champagne

Grapes: Pinot Noir / Chardonnay

Champagne Madness: Disgorged April 2019.

Excellent vintage Champagne. Loads of depth with notes of nuts, wax, nectarine and peach. Minerally and focused on the palate with a saline edge. Beautiful, especially with food.

NERD NOTES

Extrait takes its name from the French for extract, which is exactly what it is—a barrel’s worth of wine extracted from a single vintage. In fact, this is a blend drawn from the Domaine’s finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay barrels with the composition following the percentage of each variety harvested that year. So, while it generally comes in around 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, the final blend depends on the harvest (for example, the 2005 was 70% Pinot Noir).

Furthermore, the terroirs that supply this cuvée are not set in stone; Gautherot simply selects his favourite parcels by taste (although the Chardonnay almost always comes from Biaunes and the Pinot Noir often comes from the Portlandian Sorbée vineyard). The wine spends between eight and nine years on lees before being disgorged by hand.