NV Tribaut Schloesser Blanc de Chardonnay Champagne 750 ml

You could say Tribaut-Schloesser is off Champagne’s beaten path. That’s exactly the way they like it. 

The fourth-generation grower-producer is set back from the Marne River, in a small, amphitheatre-like valley, wedged between the river and the Montagne de Reims. It’s a tiny bowl of vineyards formed around the blink-an-you’ll-miss-it Brunet stream, where Tribaut-Schloesser’s vines sit on hillsides featuring a perfect blend of the Marne’s signature clay-limestone soil and Montagne de Reims chalk.

That soil diversity—combined with the various exposures the valley affords—means the family has ideal sites not just for the Marne’s marquee Pinot Meunier, but for Chardonnay as well. And their Blanc de Chardonnay displays all the balance, structure, and grace the variety can achieve in the region’s outlying, hidden-gem terroirs. 

Like a ballerina with a mean roundhouse, this wine’s vibrancy, zippy acidity, and playfulness belie a weight on the palate with well-balanced intricacies of fruit and brioche. James Suckling praised it as “elegant” with “great balance,” noting its tight-knit structure and zest. We love its finish, which seems to linger forever. If you have the patience, it’s a bottle that will continue to age gracefully for another 15 years. 

The Blanc de Chardonnay is part of winemakers’ Sébastien and Valentin Tribaut Valleé du Brunet line, which seeks to spotlight their 100% organically farmed sites. They blended Chardonnay from vineyards in the small villages of Romery, Fleury-la-Riviére, Cormoyeux, and Damery—all in or near the Brunet Valley—and rested the wine on its fine lees for 36 months before disgorgement. 

This land has captivated the family’s imaginations since founder René Schloesser loaded up his bicycle to deliver his first bottles in the 1920s. Today, that century-long obsession comes to bear in this bright, complex, and thoroughly delicious Blanc de Chardonnay.