2018 Suenen, Les Robarts Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru, Cramant

Informed by high-quality vegetal material and clay-limestone topsoil over fractured chalk, one of the highlights from this year’s tastings in the Côte de Blancs is the 2018 Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Cramant Les Robarts. Part of the vineyard, facing north, overlooks the village of Cramant, while the other part faces south toward Avize, with an atypical west-to-east planting. Aurélien recalls 2018 with pleasant emotions, as the it delivered the most generous crop of his 15-year career, free of disease pressure that marked the 2024 vintage in Champagne. With vines averaging 45 years of age, mostly from massal selection, the resulting wine is vinified each year in the same 20-hectoliter foudre from Tonnellerie Rousseau. Disgorged in July 2024 with three grams per liter dosage, it wafts from the glass with a deep bouquet of oyster shell, iodine, toasted bread and smoke. Textural and seamless, laden with electric acidity and fruit of crystalline purity, it’s a wine with incredible energy, abundant chalky structuring extract and a long, sapid finish. Suenen undeniably excelled in the 2018 vintage, a testimony to his unceasingly intense work and ethic—from vineyard to winery. Following relentless progress in the vineyards and the recent renovation of the winery, his rise to the top tier of Champagne appears unstoppable. For anyone who hasn't tried these wines, it’s time to get acquainted.