"Mon Village" Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Extra Brut

Score

17.5

"Smoky! Reduction? Plenty of struck flint, plenty plenty fresh grapefruit. All angles and slices and sabre-sliced vesicles and so very edgy. So much nervous energy. Mouth-filling and fibrillating with tension. Absolutely tingling out the glass. Grapefruit pip and pith. This is superb. Coruscating. (TC)"

Score

93

"Coming entirely from the estate's home village of Mesnil-sur-Oger, the NV Champagne Grand Cru Blanc De Blancs Mon Village Extra Brut was fermented in barrels and is a blend of the 2021 vintage with perpetual reserve from 2018-2020. In the glass, it pours a medium yellow hue and is more enveloping and rounded on the nose, with its oak framing the wine its aromatics nicely. Including notes of buttered citrus, peach, spice, toast, and oyster shells. Medium-bodied, it brings more power and concentration on the palate, with good sapidity, a frothy mousse that rounds out the mid-palate, and a lasting and persistent finish. It has a more serious nature and is going to benefit from more time. Enjoy it over the coming 10-12 or more years. It saw 3 grams per liter dosage and was disgorged in February 2024."

Score

92

"The 2021 vintage-based NV Blanc de Blancs Mon Village, sourced from Les Chétillons, Côte, Les Musettes and Montpetins lieux-dits in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, is another success from Girard-Bonnet. Complemented by 30% reserve wines from 2018 to 2020 kept in foudre, it was vinified in barrels (350 and 500 liters) and disgorged in February 2024 with three grams per liter dosage. Wafting from the glass with a bouquet of white flowers and orchard fruit, mingling with aromas of oyster shell and orange rind, it's textural and fleshy, contradicting the incisive base vintage. With a vibrant spine of acidity, it is elegantly mineral, presenting a charming profile that will offer a broad drinking window. Based on thoughtful viticulture, the results speak for themselves, echoing Paul Girard's belief that the harder you work in the vineyards, the less you have do in the cellar, as the most interesting fruit are produced from harmonious vines growing in living soils."