Friday Night Bubbles

NV Fleury Champagne Carte Rouge Brut, $40, Winebow Imports. Jean-Pierre Fleury is a pioneer of sorts. He is credited as the first grower in Champagne to convert his entire estate to biodynamics. This is back in the early '90s when crack was wack and it was extra wide laces for your Jordans. Deciding to go biodynamic is fashionable now. It couldn't have been easy back then.

The Fleury estate is located in the village of Courteron in the Côte des Bar, a region of Champagne where Pinot Noir is particularly successful. And indeed Pinot makes up about 90% of what Fleury's grows, the rest is Chardonnay. In addition to the basic brut, the lineup includes a vintage wine, a rosé that is supposed to be wonderful, and that I have never tasted, and the tête de cuvée, the Cuvée Robert Fleury.

These wines are produced in small quantities and can be difficult to find here in the States. I've never even seen a bottle of Cuvée Robert Fleury, for example. And I haven't seen the rosé either in at least a year. I haven't seen a bottle of the vintage wine since I came across a 1996 on the shelves in San Diego last December. And come to think of it, I had to go to one specific store in an out of the way neighborhood in Manhattan (for me) to find even this, the basic brut.

With distribution blanketing New York like that, it's easy to understand why Perrier-Jouet sued Fleury a few years back over the similarity of the two houses' rosé labels. The previous sentence contains 90% sarcasm and 10% snarkiness.

It really is a shame, though, that Fleury's wines are hard to find, because what I've tasted is truly delicious and unique. The NV Brut (no disgorgement data provided) opens with an elegant nose of red fruit and lots of chalk, very restrained, but pulsing with energy. And with a little air, interesting notes of malted milk powder emerge, even some cocoa powder. Although quite savory, the red fruit and chalky minerals are bright and overall the nose is very lively. This is a surprising aromatic profile that I've not before experienced in a Champagne.

The palate is absolutely fresh and pure, with richness, depth, and finesse. There are nicely focused flavors of red fruits and yeasty bread with a deeply chalky mineral finish. My favorite thing about this wine is that it feels incredibly transparent. The clarity and purity are so striking that real or imagined, I sensed the earth of Courteron in my mouth. This is a wonderful Champagne that I urge you to drink, if you come across it.