Jacques Lassaigne, “Clos Sainte Sophie” 2018

Lassaigne’s top wine, this cuvée he started making about 15 years ago from fruit he farms in the Clos Sainte Sophie which is illustrious as one of only 13 proper walled monk-laid vineyards (a ‘Clos’) within Champagne and is the only one in the southerly Aube. What’s more, some lore, cuttings from this vineyard were used in 1877 as the first plantings of vitis vinifera in Japan! Crazy provenance. Adding to the layers of complexity within the wine is that Lassaigne experiments with different barrels for this bottling, using a famous Cognac producer’s spent Cognac barrels and a Vin Jaune barrel from Ganevat, tinkering and blending as he sees fit in the cellar. The wine is not released every year, and this is the first time we will be stocking it! I’m pumped, suffice to say.