Tarlant Cuvee Louis Brut Nature 1996 Champagne

D&M Tasting Notes:

Opening with lemon compote, honey, tarragon, and sea salt, then leading into poached pear, challah, macadamia nut, and cinnamon sugar; this is a stunningly vibrant wine. With an opulent texture backed by chalky minerality, this champagne bears all the proof of its years on the lees while remaining crisp and fresh from head to toe. --DI, 07/2026

CRITICAL ACCLAIM:

"The 1996 Champagne Cuvée Louis Tarlant Brut Nature is crafted from clay subsoils and exhibits both concentrated fruit and high freshness. This is not an enothèque release – it's the first time they are releasing this wine. Full and round, it’s incredible on the nose, with apricot, croissant, and fresh nuttiness; it’s so good. Full-bodied, yet focused and precise, the mousse disappears into the fabric of the wine, and it lasts long on the palate with hazelnut and subtle coffee notes. Drink 2025-2050." - 98 PTS, AUDREY FRICK, JEB DUNNUCK (12/2025)

"This straw-colored Champagne shows hazelnuts, quince, tobacco, pastries and salted caramel. It’s deliciously saline, sleek and intense on the palate, with tangy acidity and an intense yeasty, savory character. Bone dry. 50% pinot noir and 50% chardonnay. Zero dosage. Disgorged June 2024. Drinking beautifully now, so why wait?" - 95 PTS, CLAIRE NESBITT, JAMES SUCKLING (05/2025)

"The 1996 Brut Nature Cuvée Louis Tarlant is a blend of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay done in barrel. Exotic and light on its feet, the 1996 is quite delicate. There's a touch of evolution, but that's about what I would expect for a wine of this age that was vinified and aged in French oak. This is a fabulous showing. Disgorged: October 15, 2025." - 94 PTS, ANTONIO GALLONI, VINOUS MEDIA (04/2025)

IMPORTER NOTES:

OVERVIEW: "50%Chardonnay/50% Pinot Noir. Created by the Tarlants' parents back in 1982, Cuvée Louis is named for Benoît’s and Melanie’s great-great-great grandfather. Louis was the first to bottle Tarlant estate wine (in 1928) and the one who planted this 0.9 hectare of selection-massale Pinot Noir and Chardonnay back in 1946-1948. The lieu-dit is named "Les Crayons" in reference to its particularly chalky make-up and is a flat site near the Marne in the Tarlants' home village of Oeuilly. This low-lying, river-adjacent site yields what the Tarlants refer to as "a river wine", necessarily of fuller body and richer character."

VITICULTURE & WINEMAKING: "The vines are organically farmed and harvested by hand and the clusters very slowly and gently pressed. The juice ferments spontaneously with native yeasts in Burgundy barrels; the wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. The 1996 was bottled in 1997 and disgorged in June 2023 (and not released until 2025 the first time). "Louis" is almost always a multi-vintage bottling but in this case, the choice was to let this legendary Champagne vintage stand alone."