Coteaux champenoise, 2022

Champagne without the bubbles: a still Chardonnay from a tiny Premier Cru grower on the Montagne de Reims, made in minute quantities and gone quickly.

Timothée Stroebel farms just 3.5 hectares in Villers-Allerand, a Premier Cru village on the Montagne de Reims. His grandfather planted the vines in the 1960s. Most of what he makes is Champagne. Coteaux Champenois is the region's rarer still wine, made only when the fruit ripens well enough to stand without bubbles. Native yeasts, long ageing in older oak, little sulphur and no filtration.