Petit & Bajan Ambrosie Brut Champagne

The nose shows aromas of golden apple, cream, apricot, lemon marmalade, sugar cookie, grapefruit, hazelnut, jasmine, and a bit of chalky minerality. The palate is moderate in weight with precise golden apple, lemon oil, apricot and nectarine flavors and a zingy minerality to finish. D&M Tasting Notes

As the name suggests, this is a joining of two families under one banner. Richard Petit comes from the Grand Cru village of Avize and runs the Petit Le Brun family business. Richard Petit’s family can trace their lineage four generations to the then head winemaker of Perrier Jouet who at his death divided 60 acres of vines amongst his 9 children. Véronique Bajan’s grandfather Stanislas Bajan emigrated from Poland before the start of World War II to work at Champagne Lanson. In addition to his duties at the house, he began purchasing land in the Grand Cru village of Verzenay. His son (Véronique’s father) also began working for Lanson at the tender age of 14, and after his marriage purchased an estate with 70 acres in Verzenay. All that exposition to say that past generations have set the stage that Richard and Véronique now work on. The couple met and married in the late 1990s, and for the first decade focused on Richard’s work for the family domain in Avize. The desire to do something together that was their own continued to come up in conversation, and by 2009 they decided to set aside some fruit from their ancestral holdings to release under their own banner. Michael Kennel, D&M