Champagne Dhondt Grellet - Cramant - Grand Cru 2022
In Flavigny, in the heart of the Côte des Blancs, Dhondt-Grellet is one of the estates that has given a new depth to grower champagnes. Founded in 1986 by Éric Dhondt and Édith Grellet, the property took on a particular significance with Adrien Dhondt, whose work highlights a very precise reading of the terroirs, maturities, and aging. The estate relies mainly on Chardonnay, with vines spread between premiers and grands crus, but also some more southern plots that enrich the range. Cramant occupies a central place in this family geography, both because of its Grand Cru prestige and its historical link with the Grellet branch. This village of the Côte des Blancs produces champagnes often broader and more enveloping than those from Cuis or Avize, while maintaining a remarkable chalky tension. The Cramant Grand Cru 2022 cuvée expresses this duality with great clarity: a deep, saline, textured blanc de blancs, but always held by the energy of the limestone. It embodies one of the most accomplished expressions of the Dhondt-Grellet style, between maturity, relief, and mineral precision.
This cuvée is made exclusively from Chardonnay from the Grand Cru village of Cramant, from old vines worked to express the complexity of this emblematic terroir. The blend is based on the 2022 vintage, complemented by about 30% of a perpetual reserve started in 1986, bringing the wine a depth that goes beyond the simple reading of the vintage. The two lieux-dits regularly associated with this cuvée, La Garenne and Les Longues Verges, offer complementary profiles: one brings density and power, the other tension, salinity, and mineral intensity. The soils mix chalk, clays, limestones, and fine earths, with Cramant's unique ability to give Chardonnay a generous flesh without ever losing its verticality. Barrel vinification, with malolactic fermentation, accompanies this material in a more vinous, more polished register, without erasing the fruit's precision. The very low dosage, around 1 g/L according to available information for this 2022 base, places the cuvée in an extra-brut expression of great clarity. Cramant Grand Cru 2022 thus stands out by an ambitious construction, where the perpetual reserve provides depth while the vintage brings brightness, freshness, and energy.
The color offers a clear and luminous gold, animated by a fine effervescence, already creamy in its expression. The nose opens on ripe lemon, pear, yellow apple, white peach, and almond blossom, then evolves towards notes of wet chalk, fresh hazelnut, fine brioche, and rubbed stone. On the palate, the wine has immediate breadth, but this width quickly tightens around a saline framework that gives it great length. The bubbles are delicate, integrated, more in service of texture than frothiness. The balance rests on the meeting between the natural richness of Cramant, the depth of the perpetual reserve, and the chalky tension of the Chardonnay. The finish prolongs nuances of candied citrus, white fruits, fine bitters, and dry minerality, with a very gastronomic persistence. This champagne will pair remarkably with roasted langoustines, turbot with lemon butter, seared scallops, farm poultry with light cream, shellfish risotto, or an aged Comté cheese. Served around 10 to 12°C in a fairly large glass, it will gain precision and depth with aeration.
Grape variety: Chardonnay
