Forest Marie 2010 Premier Cru Brut Champagne

The nose shows an initial aroma set of buttered toast and a bakeshop with pineapple, baked red apples and lemon zest. The palate is just shy of moderate in weight with raw nuts, dried tropical fruits, meyer lemon and baked apples. While this may last for several years, as the ageing has been done for us, try this in the near term with a dish like Mussels With White Beans, Garlic and Rosemary. D&M Tasting Notes

The families that came together to form the modern Forest-Marie can trace their lineage back nine generations to a deed from 1746 when the Forest family bought their first plots. Over the intervening generations, little by little, the family kept buying land. For this generation, when Thierry Forest married Gracianne Marie, they combined their land holdings into 86 plots across the villages of Trigny (formerly his) and Ecueil (formerly hers.) Their vines are planted to roughly a third of each of the most common Champagne varietals: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Boring to say, but Gracianne and Thierry are dedicated mulchers. They have spread mulch over their vineyards to promote biodiversity and lower the rate of tilling for over 35 years.

The tenth generation of the family Louis and Marthe are also at work at the domaine with Louis Forest having a separate label of his own. Suffice it to say that the tradition of Champagne making will continue for years to come. The Forest-Marie Vintage 2010 is made up of a 50/50 blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We are so very happy to be able to bring to you this recently disgorged, long-aged Champagne from the 2010 vintage, with a total lees time of 134 months! The 2010 vintage was cooler than the magnificent 2008, so this iteration is a bit more reserved and acid driven versus the 2008 we featured four years ago. Michael Kennel, D&M