Franck Bonville : Les Belles Voyes Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru 2015

100% Chardonnay from a single 0.8-ha vineyard planted at the top of Oger, close to the border of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Their only cuvée vinified with any oak. Fermented in 55 oak barrels – each year they include five new barrels (i.e., 10% are new) and the rest range between one and eight years old. Disgorged February 2023. Dosage 5 g/l. A startling contrast to their other wines. The nose is spice and nuts, cloves, allspice and aniseed. The wine is darkly savoury, almost growling. Rye-seed bread, toasted chia. Strikingly unusual with a long, long, brass-gong tang. Broad and powerful but precise and chiselled. Pickled lemon and pickled ginger. Complex, bold, and so gastronomic! It feels like I’m crunching on toasted seeds and chewing lemons. Just wonderful. (TC)