Ruelle Pertois Brut Millesime Champagne Grand Cru 2017

In the early part of the 20th century, the families of Michel Ruelle and Martine Pertois made Champagne in the village of Moussy, a village on the border of the Vallée de la Marne and the Côte des Blancs. When Michel and Martine married in the early 1970s, they invariably began their own Champagne house in the village. And when they retired from their métiers as Champagne makers, their son Benoit and daughter Virginie assumed the reins of the family domain, Champagne Ruelle-Pertois.

Like their mother and father, like their grandmothers and grandfathers, Benoit and Virginie don’t bother marketing the Champagne they make. All they do is devote themselves to their vineyards and their cellar. All they do is make great quality Champagne for a bargain price. They know bona fide Champagne lovers will find them.

And I did!

Ruelle-Pertois Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs is 100% Chardonnay, 90% of which is from the family’s grand cru vineyards in Chouilly, Oiry and Cramant. Extraordinarily, Benoit and Virginie leave their wine on its lees for six years. They add to the wine a minimum of seven grams of dosage — a practice which allows the beauty and richness of the fruit they cultivate to play the primary role in the Champagne they make. A Champagne with seductive aromas of citrus, stone fruit, and flowers, followed by a gratifying fleshy, creamy, luscious palate.

Benoit and Virginie pour themselves — the history of their family, the quality of their viticulture, and their care in the cellar — into the practice of making great Champagne. Because they don’t incur the costs of marketing their Champagne, they make its price a crazy bargain. They leave it to you and me to pour ourselves one bottle after another.