2004 Tarlant La Vigne d'Antan

The 2004 La Vigne d’Antan, 100% Chardonnay from ungrafted vines, emerges from a parcel near the winery. White flowers, mint, citrus and white pepper lend tremendous vibrancy to this nervy, sinewy Champagne. Bright saline accents that extend the chiseled finish beautifully. The 2004 is just exquisite. Disgorged: June 5, 2021.

The 2004 Brut Nature La Vigne d'Antan emerges from a parcel of own-rooted Chardonnay planted on sand. A wine that has benefitted from time in bottle, the 2004 is positively stunning today. Lime, grape fruit white flowers crushed rocks and white pepper are delineated with striking precision. The 2004 has always been terrific, but today it sizzles with a level of energy I don’t recall seeing in the past. La Vigne d'Antan remains one of the most unique and compelling wines in Champagne.

The 2004 La Vigne d'Antan Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs is 100% barrel-fermented Chardonnay from 50+-year-old, ungrafted vines in the "Les Sables" vineyard in Oeuilly (10,000 vines per hectare) that was pickled on October 2. This millésime was scheduled to be disgorged in autumn this year—after 12.5 years on the lees. My sample is an exclusive Brut Nature pre-disgorgement from July 2017 that I tasted in November 2017. This impressively fresh and complex single vineyard vintage fizz has a straw-yellow color and opens with a deep, pure, intense and mineral bouquet with flavors of chalk, iodine, smoke and oak, giving the perfectly ripe, rather tropical fruit an extra dimension. It is intense yet straight, pure, fresh and bone dry on the palate, with great finesse and a very good structure and mineral complexity. Provided with zero added sugar, the 2004 has enough roundness for another decade in the bottle. The wine did not undergo malolactic fermentation. This old vines Chardonnay should be perfect with many kinds of food, even lobster. However, its best position is after dinner since it cleans your palate and brings you back to life. This is a great and vitalizing Champagne! Benoît Tarlant remembers 2004 as a "very relaxed and regular year" with "no stress, no hurry." He adds that "especially the Chardonnays showed very well that year." However, he doesn't display the vintage on the front label here but rather the name of the old vineyard, whereas consumers can find the vintage on the technical back label in very small letters...