Champagne Jérôme Blin Les Ports Complantation Brut Nature NV

Jérôme Blin doesn’t make anything in large quantities, and no two cuvées in his portfolio are even slightly similar. Everything is based on single parcels and treated differently based on their grape composition and soil type, so each wine truly has its own distinct personality. Yet, his whole portfolio is bound together by the purity and expressiveness of their vineyards of origin, with fruit and earth both represented impeccably. This “Les Ports Complantation” Brut Nature comes from an organically farmed parcel planted in 1986. The cuvée takes an uncommon blend of Pinot Meunier, Pinot Blanc, Petit Meslier, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Gris, giving it incredible lift and energy, with notes of fresh pear, lemon zest, plum preserves, yellow peach, and apple tinged with chalky minerals. There’s a savory and smoky depth with crumbled limestone giving it immense backbone and structure – so incredibly unique, vinous, and enjoyable. “Gastronomic yet highly pleasurable. Exciting stuff!” wrote one commenter on CellarTracker (where people are notoriously tough critics, but for this wine they concluded it deserved 91 points overall – generous for the platform!). The Blin family history in Champagne dates back to 1671 in Vincelles, a village in the Marne Valley. The modern-day Blin Champagne history goes back to Jérôme’s grandfather, who created the H. Blin Cooperative in 1947 by organizing 28 other growers in the region. The family’s production on their six-hectare estate – mostly planted to Meunier (75%) and then 15% each of Pinot and Chardonnay – was earmarked for the co-op, to be blended, fermented, and sold as part of a far larger production. These exceptional vines average about 45 years of age, however, and once Jérôme took over from his father in 2010, they were too precious to hand over. The bespectacled Jérôme Blin is a charming and thoughtful man, who revels in finding the balance of nature and farming, and notion of legacy when it is all said and done. His awesome glasses are neat enough on their own, but it’s his experimental winemaking techniques that really get us excited. He uses amphorae and what he calls “wine globes” to vinify his wines, in pursuit of more sustainable practices and vessels. He’s also incredibly committed to the land, farming organically and biodynamically – mostly on his own, plus a couple horses and some sheep to help him with the heavy lifting. In terms of real-deal grower Champagne, it doesn’t get more sincere than this. Take home a few of these limited and rare wines, while we still have them!