Champagne Brut Nature
Trilogie KM-2

The Champagne Trilogie by Clandestin is an exercise in style signed by Benoît Doussot, a vigneron with Burgundian training transplanted to the Côte des Bar, where he set out to tell the terroir like never before in the Barséquanais. The idea is to deliver the pure expression of each geological layer of the coteau, the result of millions of years of sedimentation, leaving the soil as the only differentiating variable between the three cuvées. The result is a Blanc de Noirs from Pinot Noir grapes on a Kimmeridgian matrix, from vines located in the surroundings of Landreville, where the deep limestone delivers saline verticality and expressive clarity.

This edition KM-2, from the 2022 harvest, comes from the middle part of the slope, the vigneron's favourite band, where the Kimmeridgian limestone reaches its full expressive maturity and delivers a dense and layered saline tension. Vinification and spontaneous fermentation take place by gravity in the vigneron's new cellar, with maturation in 600-litre French oak barrels following the Burgundian approach learnt in Meursault. After tirage follows an ageing on the lees of at least 18 months, with no final dosage, in Brut Nature style, a choice that lets the soil speak without any filter.

On tasting, KM-2 appears deep and chiselled, with a very fine perlage that precedes a wide and juicy mouth, where the saline matter intertwines with a silky texture of rare density. On the palate emerges a compact and well-drawn structure, crossed by notes of small red fruits, ripe citrus and a chalky trail that grows sip after sip, sustained by a clear-cut and well-modulated acidity. The finish is long, vibrant and iodised, with a flavoursome persistence that confirms the transparency of the cru and a rare ageing capacity, estimated at around fifteen years.