NV Delamotte Vintage Blanc de Blancs

Based on vintage 2007 - with reserve components principally from two predecessors - Delamotte's NV Brut Blanc de Blancs L16612 incorporates fruit from Mesnil as well as Avize, Cramant and Oger, and spends four years on its bottle lees. Persian melon, raw almond and apple are garlanded with orange blossom and peony and tinged with orange rind and chalk. The seven grams of residual sugar are very supportive of the wine's succulent overall personality, even though one might expect a less effusive fruit expression from the vintage on which this is based. There is the refinement of texture and buoyancy here that seem - along with pure fruit and mouthwatering salinity - to be common characteristics of Delamotte cuvees. I would expect this fine value to perform admirably for at least 3-4 years. Delamotte director Didier Depond and chef de cave Michel Fauconnet - also responsible for Champagne Salon, housed in immediately adjacent facilities since both became part of the Laurent-Perrier in 1989 - perpetuate some long-standing house rules, including fermentation in tank, generally with a substantial share of the lots undergoing malolactic transformation; and the incorporation into one or both of their Blanc de Blancs bottlings (in years when no Salon is declared) of fruit from the vineyards under contract for that house. Shades of German wine registration numbers, it is the last portion - here amounting to five digits - of a Delamotte lot number (on the back of each bottle) to which one most needs to attend, as that indicates the disgorgement date, viz. -L ... 04612- was disgorged on the 46th day (thus, in mid-February) of 2012. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802