Wine of the week: an extraordinary Champagne going cheap

published 27 March 2020

NV Gatinois, Brut Tradition, Grand Cru, Aÿ, Champagne, France

£35.15, reduced to £31.25 each for a case of 12 bottles, Haynes Hanson & Clark, 020-7584 7927, hhandc.co.uk

I can remember sitting next to the venerable Madame Gatinois at a Bollinger Vins Clairs Assemblage lunch many, many years ago. This prestigious, annual event is held to thank those grape growers who contribute to Bollinger’s own harvest and it forms the basis for blending the wines that will appear on the market in years to come. Gatinois is based in the great village of Aÿ, just down the road from Bolly, and it owns 7.5 hectares of epic pinot noir vines, most of which they sell to Bollinger. Madame Gatinois was seated to the right of Ghislain de Montgolfier, the Bollinger boss at the time, so she was clearly the most important person in the room, underlining the calibre of her fruit.

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Gatinois keeps a small proportion of its grapes to release under its own label and, today, tiny quantities of wine are made by Louis Cheval-Gatinois. The blend is, not surprisingly, made from 90% pinot noir, with the balance being chardonnay. It is a “white” Champagne, but cannot fail to pick up some pigment from its regal pinot noir skins, and it wears a curiously fascinating amber/gold hue. The nose and flavour are about as impressive as it gets and the wine is extraordinarily underpriced. This is a stellar Champagne and it is made from perfect ingredients. I love it more than a great many of the most revered wines from the famous Grandes Marques houses.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)

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Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.