Tarlant Brut Nature Zero

Champagne Tarlant produces top-quality Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay from which to fashion an impressive range of wines. This superb family run champagne house is centred in oeuilly in the Vallee de la Marne, it is on the cusp of Biodynamic certification. The wine maker and owner Benoit is one of the few Champenois who, along with Krug and Bollinger still ferment their base wines in barre, block the malolactic fermentation in order to give greater ageing potential and believe in ageing thier wines for far longer than the legal minimum.

Without added sugar (Zero = zero dosage) this is a frank and fresh champagne which reveals the character of the fruit. Chardonnay, Pinot Meurnier and Pinot Noir grapes are hand-selected at optimum maturity and carefully blended. The first fermentation is in stainless steel, the reserve wines are drawn from oak casks. On the nose, experience the scents of wax, honey, lemon and mandarin. On the palate enjoy the length and citrus finish, delivered with a lovely honesty and openness.

This domaine is quality focused, and has 13 hectares of vineyards spread among 4 crus, with all six permitted varieties planted (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, Arbanne, Pinot Blanc, Petit Meslier). As is increasingly common in the Champagne region, they’ve taken a viticulture raisonée approach: they use organic fertilizers, concentrate on encouraging populations of beneficial insects, and use pheromones to create sexual confusion among pest species. ‘Our treatment of the land is designed give long term and sustainable biodiversity and to protect the micro-organisms which live in it’, they say on their website, which incidentally is a very good one with an excellent video-based blog.

Tarlant are well known for their non-dosage wines, which make up a remarkable 60% of their production. For those unfamiliar with the term dosage, this is the sweet liquid (liqueur d’expedition, typically a wine sweetened with grape juice) added at the end of the Champagne production process to balance the wine out. Typically a Champagne labelled ‘brut’, which is most of them, will have around 9 grams of sugar per litre added in this way: it doesn’t make the wine taste sweet, but merely balances the high acidity that would otherwise stick out. Some Champagne makers have tried using little or no dosage: to do this, the wine must already be quite well balanced, and the result is called Brut Zero, or Zero Dosage, or Ultra Brut, or another similar term. Such wines are still quite rare in Champagne and there is some discussion about whether they work or not.