NV Jean Vesselle Brut Oeil de Perdrix

The NV Champagne Oeil De Perdrix Brut is a bright pink salmon hue, and leads with ripe tropical notes of mango, peach puree, pastry dough, and floral perfume. Medium-bodied, the palate is what sets this wine apart, with a refined and pinpoint mousse, a clean, stony texture, and a delicately rounded mid-palate. It’s drinking beautifully now but should age slowly over the coming 10-12 years. Disgorged April 2023.

Made from 100% Pinot Noir, the NV Champagne Oeul de Perdrix Brut has a pale salmon hue and a very pretty perfume of rose water, orange blossom, and peach. Elegant and medium-bodied, with pithy grapefruit citrus and salty minerality, it should improve over the next 10-15 years. Delphine Vesselle is a third-generation winemaker located in the Grand Cru village of Bouzy. Her father Jean Vesselle took over the family business in 1972 and changed the name to give his own name to the company. Delphine returned from her wine studies in 1992 and took over control of the winery in 1993, when she was 22 years old. She stopped using insecticides and weed killers upon her return. For the past five years, they have worked organically in Bouzy and Chouilly and implemented some biodynamic principles. In 2021, they began the official conversion for organic certification and will be certified in 2025. Today, they have a little over 17 hectares, with total production of 160,000 bottles, 83% of which is exported. The philosophy in the winery is to treat each wine with an equal level of care and importance without elevating one wine as a prestige cuvée.

Disgorged in May 2021, Vesselle's latest NV Brut Oeil de Perdrix exhibits aromas of red berries, peach pit and fresh pastry. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and precise, with a pretty core of fruit, lively acids and a pillowy mousse, it's a fine-boned, elegant rosé that's showing well.