Champagne Jacquesson Cuvée 740 Extra Brut NV

Critic Tyson Stelzer said of Jacquesson “There are no secrets here, just great Champagnes” in his 2016/17 Champagne Guide. Run by brothers Laurent and Jean-Hervé Chiquet, this Champagne house is quite unique. They don’t strive to produce a house style, but to bring out the qualities of a vintage. Perversely, however, they don’t produce a vintage Champagne. Instead they use wine mostly from a single year then add around 30% reserve wines to flatter the vintage and add complexity, hence the 700 series that distinguishes a different blend, but not the specific year. If they have a particular house style, it is one of uncompromising quality, fruit purity and minerality. For this they use indigenous yeasts and prefer no filtering. A real treat.