Benoît Tarlant and his Champagnes

I went to a tutored tasting of Benoît's Champagnes yesterday held@the offices of Charles Taylor Wines Ltd, their UK importer. The range had an impressive purity assisted by using low levels of dosage.

The Tarlants have been involved in Champagne for 12 generations: for the first seven they grew grapes, while since the 1920s when Benoît's great grandfather started making his own Champagne they have been producers. The Tarlants are based in Oeuilly with 14 hectares of vines across four communes – Oeuilly, Boursault, St-Agnan and Celles-les-Condés. Benoît stressed that it is the different parcels and different terroirs that are ther basis of their Champagne. 

 

Champagne Tarlant Brut Zero

We started with one of my favourites from the tasting – the very clean and precise Brut Zero that has no added dosage to it. It was Benoît's father, Jean-Mary, who started making Zéro. Although there is sugar added when the wine is bottled for its secondary fermentation, there is no dosage added after the wine has been degorged. Typically commercial brands of Champagne can contain around 12 grams per litre of added sugar or more.

"The grapes for Zéro have to be mature," explained Benoît, "between 10%-11% potential. When my father started sales of Zéro represented only 5%-10% of our non-vintage sales. Now that has totally changed and they represent 70%-80% of our sales." Benoît thought that there were various factors that explained the change. "Partly it is due to eating habits changing – with the rise in the popularity of sushi. Also the Zéro goes very well with oysters."

Rosé Zéro

The Brut Rosé Nature was a later addition. "I started experimenting around 2000. Making a Rosé Zéro is more difficult than making a white because of the tannins, which usually need some dosage to hide them. I only make 8000 bottles of the rosé, while there are 80,000 bottles of the white Zéro. Clearly Benoît's experiments were successful the Rosé Zéro has attractively delicate red fruit flavours. 

 

1998 Tarlant

As well as the two Zéros, I also particularly liked the rich, buttery and toasty 1998 vintage Tarlant, which in 1998 is a blend of Chardonnay (65%) and Pinot Nor (35%). This was the first of the teroir series that we were shown. The 1998 has impressive power, texture and with the potential to age further.

Cuvée Louis

My last favorite from the arnge was the Cuvée Louis, part of the terroir range coming from vines at the bottom of the hill where the chalk is strong and hard and the vines are close to the river. 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir mainly from the 1998 vintage (80%) with the addition of reserve wines from 1997 and 1996.  It has rich, ripe, honeyed fruit and fine texture and showing very well now, although it has the potential to age for longer.

Champagne Tarlant can be found at the following UK stockists:

Montrachet Fine Wine Merchants
Theatre of Wine
Bottle Apostle
Chamberlain Wines
The Sampler
Island Wine Company
Kingsgate Wines