The Millésime 2020 Extra Brut from Leclerc Briant is a champagne born of a cool, fruit-driven vintage. The grapes retained a crisp, bright acidity that gives the wine precision and drive.
This is a cuvée that reveals its nuances and its typicity (its own distinct character) gradually, as the tasting unfolds. It speaks of citrus and white-fleshed fruits, with a lively, precise texture. The palate shows real tension, carried by a fine mineral balance.
This is a bottle you can pour from the aperitif onwards, with comté gougères for instance, before bringing it to the table alongside a sole meunière.
The Terroir
The Millésime 2020 Extra Brut is a blend of:
- Chardonnay
- Pinot Noir
The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir come from across the Champagne vineyard, where Leclerc Briant tends its vines with respect for the region's diversity of soils.
This diversity of terroirs allows each grape variety to express its character fully, rather than depending on a single soil type or aspect.
Chardonnay lends the wine its tension and finesse, while Pinot Noir gives it structure and depth.
Organic certification guarantees growing practices free of synthetic pesticides and herbicides, respecting the soils and the vine's natural balance.
Winemaking
Hervé Jestin, Leclerc Briant's cellar master, chose to vinify this blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with 30% of the volume fermented in oak barrels, a choice that brings subtle woody notes to the wine. Malolactic fermentation was carried out in full, softening the wine's acidity and giving it velvety texture on the palate. The wine was cellared in June 2021 and rested on lees for 59 months (4 years and 11 months), a long maturation that builds the complexity of this cuvée. The dosage, set at 1.8 g/L, classes this 2020 vintage as Extra Brut: an exacting dosage that lets the wine's tension take centre stage rather than any sweetness. Disgorgement took place in May 2026, the final step before the bottle reaches your table.
The 2020 Vintage
The year 2020 opened with a very wet winter in Champagne, the start of the year was particularly rainy, with February the wettest on record, before shifting from March onwards into a warm, dry season marked by several heatwaves, admittedly less extreme than in 2019 but still leaving their mark on the vines. This heat pushed the grapes towards rapid ripening, while during the harvest the weather remained excellent, with cool nights that preserved their acidity. Picking began in mid-August, the earliest harvest in Champagne's history, yielding balanced, fruity musts with lovely freshness and great aromatic expression. This sun-drenched vintage gives the cuvée a vivid fruitiness and a taut freshness, carried by the balance between Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
