Tarlant Zero Brut Nature Champagne

The nose shows a mix of golden apple, toast, cream, citrus, mirabelle plum, and a touch of forest floor. The palate is moderate in weight with taut apple and yellow plum fruit notes nicely balanced by cream, toast and a touch of minerality. One critic said that this disgorgement should drink well from now through 2040, and we heartily agree. D&M Tasting Notes

The Tarlant of today can draw a line back to their ancestor Pierre Tarlant who began wine cultivation in 1687 in Burgundy. To name all of the members of the Tarlant family would be like the beginning of the Old Testament, but we feel it important to highlight several significant Tarlants. In 1780 as our Revolutionary War entered its second phase, Louis Tarlant and his wine went to live in Oeuilly in the Marne and began to plant vineyards. In 1911, Louis Adrien Tarlant took part in the "Champagne Revolution” to recognize the AOC worldwide. Louis, as Mayor of Oeuilly, and his colleagues were instrumental in specifying the AOC Champagne area in 1927. After spending a decade fighting the houses for Champagne grapes alone to be used in the production of Champagne, Louis swore to never again sell a single grape to the big houses and, with his wife’s help, was one of the first ten producers to bottle their own cuvee which they named Carte Blanche.

Today, the 12th generation of the Tarlant family is in charge with Benoît spending time in the cellar and learning winemaking with his father and Mélanie working the world marketing and selling the products of their family’s cellars. We had the opportunity to sit down to dinner with Mélanie years ago and she comes across as an original thinker and one that recognizes the importance of her family’s work. She enjoys skateboarding and could be quite at home at an advertising agency but when asked about that potential path she stated that after twelve generations on the land, “she wasn’t about to go work in an office.” Benoît and Mélanie took the conversion to organics as their first major challenge at the domaine, and all of their plots are now certified as organic.

In addition to farming organically, they utilize minimal plowing and have continued their father’s approach to encouraging grass and flowers to flourish between the rows. The two siblings have 14 hectares of vines within 31 single sites that they further subdivide into 63 parcels that they vinify separately. In the cellar, the wine is gently pressed and undergoes a natural fermentation in used Burgundy barrels. Tarlant is highly unique in that over 90% of their production is Brut Nature. This was started by their father Jean-Mary in the 1970s, well before it became fashionable.  Their ‘Zero’  is the calling card of the domaine. It is drawn from the Marne river valley villages of OEuilly, Boursault, Celles-lès-Condé, and Saint-Agnan. Sixty percent of this cuvee comes from the 2014 vintage with the rest drawn from their decades old reserve. The Tarlant’s have a small holding of the rare white varietals which makes their way into this blend; with a total makeup of 32 percent each Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay and the final 4 percent being the ‘Old Varieties’ of Petit Meslier, Arbanne, and Pinot Blanc. (The family has fully embraced transparency with the QR code on the back linking to the bottle’s specific disgorgement.) After spending over five and a half years in contact with the lees in bottle, this was disgorged in February 2021. Michael Kennel, D&M