View 2013 Champagne Catalog - Michael Skurnik Wines

Varnier-Fannière
Côte des Blancs // Avize
vineyard area // 4 hectares
annual production // 3,000 cases
villages & soil types // Avize Grand Cru, Cramant Grand Cru, Oger Grand Cru (chalk)
grape varieties // 100% Chardonnay
Côte des Blancs
Varnier-Fannière
I’m on a total Varnier kick these days. I don’t know how Champagne can give more
affectionate pleasure. Not only are they incisive in that graphite-y way, but they are
correctly conceived as regards dosage. They exude class and fastidious detail. They are like
the calligraphy of Avize. And this year I learned they have slightly lower pressure than
many Champagnes – about 15-20% less. This may be why they feel so silky and limpid.
It turns out Denis has as much land in Cramant as
he does in Avize, and I also learned one possible reason
his Champagnes are so silky and refreshing: he microoxygenates
the still wines in order to use less sulfur and to
encourage the tertiaries to express.
Denis does full malo, and is another one who
undertakes the back-straining work of the old Coquard
press. The style is a theoretical hybrid of Pierre Péters
and Larmandier-Bernier, but the fruit is unique. The
wines are fastidious and etched; even his Rosé. You
know those magnifying goggles the jewelers wear
when they’re inspecting a stone? Drinking Denis’
Champagnes is like looking at flavor through those
spectacles.
I had a colleague with me one year making his first trip
to Champagne, and for some reason he hit upon the topic
of temperature control during fermentations. Denis
answered the question thus: “For me control of
temperature is an industrial way to produce Champagne.”
Denis is a modern-looking gentleman who gives the
impression he could fix your computer, and his domaine
is small and so we don’t focus on him as we really should.
I had friends over for a glass of Champagne and we drank
the Clos Jacquin monocru that’s the Tête-de-Cuvée for
Pierre Callot, another good small grower in Avize. And
we admired it as it deserved; it’s excellent fizz. Then I
opened a bottle of Varnier’s 1990 and we got perspective
in a hurry. I enjoy drinking “other” grower’s Champagnes
for recreation (and education) but each time I return to
what I already have, I am affirmed and grateful. This
1990 was great wine.
Varnier-Fannière at a glance // Tiny, 4 hectare domainee with exclusively Grand Cru land. Young vigneron
making feline-snappy ultra-clear wines.
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