A single 0.7ha plot in Avize, this has very assertive citrus and dried peach edge with strong chalky minerals. Extremely vibrant. The palate has richness of fruit with white peach and apricot flavors. Sturdy structure supports ripe and concentrated fruit. Grape maturity is expressed at an elite level here – a gift of the terroir and its interpreters. The acidity is striking, driving a deep, sorbet-like finish. Drink now.

94+ The brilliant, white golden-colored 2010 Les Chemnins d'Avize Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra-Brut offers a highly complex, lovely intense and refreshing bouquet of white fruit flavors mingled with nuts, brioche, chalk and iodine flavors. Full-bodied and generously creamy-textured, this is a highly elegant and perfectly balanced Blanc de Blancs that is rather rich than ascetic (in case you fear the Extra-Brut), and reveals a persistent mineral structure and refreshing purity in the finish. Although the Chemins is still bloody young, it drinks wonderfully today, but can (or should) age for several years to gain even more delicacy and complexity. - Stephan Reinhardt