NV R.H. Coutier Brut ‘Cuvée Tradition’

75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay. All estate fruit from Ambonnay, one of the largest Grand Cru villages.  2017 base year with 40% reserve wine. Full malolactic with five years of aging on the lees. 6g/L dosage. The Coutier family was the first family to plant Chardonnay in this famed Pinot-centric village. Vineyards in Ambonnay face due south, producing a warmer microclimate for the grapes. Ambonnay soils have more clay and a bit less limestone than is typical throughout the region. Coutier ploughs, uses no herbicides and grows grass between rows. 

92 points, John Gilman. "The current release of R. H. Coutier 'Cuvée Tradition' non-vintage Brut is from the base year of 2017 and includes forty percent reserve wines in the blend. It is crafted from a cépages of seventy-five percent pinot noir and twenty-five percent chardonnay. The vins clairs go through full malolactic fermentation and the wine was disgorged in June of 2023, after more than five years aging sur lattes. It was finished with a dosage of six grams per liter. The wine delivers a superb bouquet of apple, nectarine, chalky minerality, wheat toast, dried flowers and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and mineral-driven, with a lovely core of fruit, good focus and grip, elegant mousse and a long, complex and seamlessly balanced finish. This is excellent non-vintage Brut. Drink from 2023-2040."