Champagne Alexis Limar - Our Beloved Lands - Brut Nature 2020
In La Neuville-aux-Larris, at the gates of the Montagne de Reims and within the orbit of the Marne Valley, Alexis Limar is one of those young winemakers whose champagnes already carry a very personal voice. With Jeanne Limar, he works a family vineyard of about three hectares spread between La Neuville-aux-Larris, Cuchery, Belval-sous-Châtillon, and Mailly-Champagne Grand Cru. The estate has been built on an artisanal approach, with manual work, no herbicides or pesticides, and a clear desire to let the wines express their origin without excessive correction. In the cellar, spontaneous fermentations, the absence of fining and filtration, as well as precise aging produce champagnes that are straight, frank, and lightly adorned. Our Beloved Lands holds a special place in this young range, as the cuvée isolates Meunier in a very direct parcel expression. It does not seek the easy roundness sometimes associated with this grape variety, but a more taut, sober, and mineral form. This Brut Nature 2020 thus translates a Champagne of soil, ripe fruit, and precision, with a sincerity that perfectly matches the spirit of the estate.
This cuvée is made exclusively from Meunier, coming from a massal selection vine planted in 1983 on calcareous silty clay soils. This context gives the wine a very readable personality: the Meunier brings flesh, white fruit, and natural suppleness, while the limestone soil and absence of dosage tighten the mouth and enhance the sensation of salinity. Vinification with indigenous yeasts and aging in stainless steel tanks for ten months preserve a clear expression, without woody notes or stylistic effects. The choice of Brut Nature, without added sugar after disgorgement, requires precise balance, as it reveals without detour the maturity of the grape, the quality of the harvest, and the accuracy of the vinification. The 2020 vintage brings a matter already more composed, with ripe fruit and a texture capable of absorbing the dryness of zero dosage. Our Beloved Lands thus stands out from more blended cuvées by its monolithic character in the best sense: one grape variety, one parcel, one clear line. It is a demanding winemaker's champagne, but never austere, which finds its interest in precision rather than breadth.
The robe presents itself in a clear, luminous gold, animated by a fine and regular bubble. The nose evokes fresh pear, yellow apple, mirabelle plum, white flowers, and a touch of almond, then reveals more mineral nuances of wet stone and chalk. On the palate, the attack is dry, clear, carried by a delicate effervescence that gives movement without hardening the wine. The Meunier brings a supple, almost silky texture, but the absence of dosage immediately tightens the whole around a more saline and straighter finish. The balance rests on this tension between ripe fruit, limestone freshness, and a sensation of purity, with an elegant persistence on citrus, white fruits, and fine bitters. This champagne will pair very well with meaty oysters, sea bream tartare, just-seared langoustines, scallop carpaccio, Comté gougères, or lemony poultry. Served around 9 to 10°C in a fairly open glass, it will gain relief after a few minutes and better reveal its grain, salinity, and the delicacy of its Meunier.
Grape variety: Meunier
