Champagne La Vigne d'Antan 2006 Champagne Tarlant

The Champagne La Vigne d'Antan Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature 2006 from Tarlant sits at the pinnacle of their range, the rarest and most philosophical cuvée from this family house in Oeuilly, whose Champagne roots reach back to 1687. A 100% ungrafted Chardonnay, never grafted, born in the lieu-dit Les Sables, from the only ungrafted Chardonnay vine on this Vallée de la Marne slope. Bottled in 2007, disgorged in 2022 after fifteen years of ageing on lees. Zero dosage. La Vigne d'Antan reveals an original Chardonnay with aromas lost since the nineteenth century. This exclusive Champagne invites you to taste across time itself, toward uncommon purity.

The parcel and terroir

La Vigne d'Antan takes its name from Champagne dialect, antan meaning yesterday, once upon a time, before. The name says everything about this parcel's absolute singularity. The lieu-dit Les Sables at Oeuilly itself draws its name from substrate, siliceous sands from the Lutetian period, forty-five million years old, with natural lightness and permeability that protected these vines from phylloxera in the late nineteenth century, since that pest dislikes sand. This natural protection is why these Chardonnays remain ungrafted, never grafted onto American rootstocks as nearly all French vines have been since 1870. These vines, planted from three mother roots in 1962 by Denise and Geo Tarlant, grandparents of Benoît and Mélanie, were propagated using the ancestral provignage method, that old-fashioned layering which lends nobility to the cuvée. The slope faces northeast and northwest, at 135 metres altitude, on the left bank of the Marne. Harvest took place on 28 September 2006, following a vintage with contrasting spring and summer weather, then a warm, sunny September. Gravity pressing, slow and gentle, spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts, seven months on harvest lees in Burgundian oak barrels. No malolactic fermentation, to preserve all natural acidity and ageing potential. Unfiltered, unrefined. Bottled in 2007, disgorged in 2022. Brut Nature, zero dosage.

Tasting profile

The robe is a luminous pale gold with golden glints, alive with fine, persistent bubbles of absolute delicacy and clarity. The nose bursts from the glass with aromas of buttered toast, ripe pear, blanched almonds and pastry, mingling with notes of green apple and very fine sandy minerality. A dense Champagne, almost voluptuous in texture, with remarkable richness and length. Notes of baked apple, strawberry, tart crust and savoury biscuits compose a bouquet of depth and complexity evoking the greatest Burgundian Chardonnays at their peak. The iron and sand minerality is particularly striking and unique. On the palate, the wine is full bodied and textured, with multidimensional fruit generosity carried by a radiant, precise acidity and intense, tactile minerality that give the wine absolute tension and depth. It leaps from the glass with aromas of buttered toast, ripe pear, blanched almonds and pastry. The finish is long, electric and saline, with a persistence and purity that confirm the absolute greatness of this unique ungrafted vine.

The house

Since the reign of Louis XIV, the Tarlant family have cultivated vines in the Marne valley. Today, Benoît and Mélanie Tarlant, the twelfth generation, manage their fourteen hectares at Oeuilly in certified organic viticulture. La Vigne d'Antan is the quintessence of their philosophy, a parcel of centenarian ungrafted vines, a sandy terroir that resisted phylloxera, an original Chardonnay thought lost since the nineteenth century. A singular, timeless Champagne.

Food pairings

This Champagne La Vigne d'Antan Brut Nature 2006 pairs beautifully with fine oysters, grilled lobster with lemon butter, roasted turbot, seared scallops with white truffle, aged cheese such as 36-month Comté or truffle-laden Brillat-Savarin. It will also be sublime on its own, in a large white Burgundy glass, left open for twenty minutes so that fifteen years of lees may fully unfold. Served between 10 and 12°C, it will reveal the full sandy purity, electric tension and complexity of a unique ungrafted Chardonnay, vinified with absolute conviction and patience by one of the most singular and admired Champagne houses of our time.