The new Lanson 'Green Label' non-vintage Brut is the first wine from this fine Champagne house made entirely from organically farmed grapes certified by Eco-Cert (and literally all the other organic certifications possible)!
Blend: 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier, 20% Chardonnay
Taste: A complex nose of white peach, chalky soil tones, patissière (pastry), a touch of spice, and a lovely, gently floral top note. The notes of spice and rich fruits are the result of the high percentage of Pinot Meunier in the blend. On the palate, the wine has flavors of crisp green fruits, citrus, and more delicious pastry, brioche-y flavors. You’ll notice the body of the wine immediately as full and focused, with a strikingly finessed core. Reaching its finale, a symphonic harmony of refined mousse and enduring length lend to a vibrant and wide-open finish.
Pairing: Ideal as an aperitif, it can also accompany shellfish, crab, lobster, or grilled meat dishes. Quite the range, we know, but you can make a night out of it by making your own seafood boil! As for the “grilled meat dishes,” we recommend sticking to lighter, leaner cuts or lean into poultry dishes. Grilled chicken with lemon and thyme, chicken and biscuits, garlic butter chicken, and lemon dijon chicken should give you a couple of ideas to start with! If you want to take a lean, green approach, any of those recipes substituted with mushroom, tofu, or paneer (ok, paneer is not lean, but it’s so delicious) would also work seamlessly as a pairing. Some sides that play well in general are even American favorites; oven-roasted potatoes, green beans, carrots, and sweet corn (just don’t leave out the butter!).
This wine: The accomplishment of making an all-organic Champagne is an important one, a step that should be lauded, especially when you taste how superbly made this is in your glass. The resulting wine originated from eight hectares of vines that Lanson bought from LeClerc-Briant (when the proprietor of this house passed away in 2010), and which had been farmed biodynamically for several years prior to the sale (a feat when you think of how typically cold and wet Champagne is as a winemaking region). The cépages (cépage = grape blend) here are a bit different from the Black Label bottling, as this blend is made up of 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier & 20% Chardonnay. The new release was disgorged in March of 2018 and is from the superb base year of 2012; it was finished with a dosage of nine grams per liter, which still qualifies this champagne as brut under current dosage laws.
90 Points -Decanter World Wine Awards
94 Points -Wine Enthusiast
92 Points -Wine Spectator
