2016 Champagne Christophe Baron Les Alouettes Brut Nature | Charly-Sur-Marne Champagne, France 1.5L MAGNUM

With Pinot Meunier fruit harvested from old vines, tiny yields and a minimalist approach in the cellar, Champagne Christophe Baron creates wines of great depth, high complexity and intense minerality. The style is vinous, dry and gastronomic. No dosage is added, which allows the terroir to shine through.
Each parcel is vinified individually, and the wine crafting is as naturally non-interventionist as possible. Both the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are carried out with indigenous yeast, in a mix of demi-muids and barrels. The wines are neither fined or filtered, are disgorged with no dosage and are bottled only in magnums.
This dedication to purity and craft yields serious Champagnes that are highly singular and energetic. The wines offer a remarkable combination of power, structure and transparency, and a creamy finish adds further complexity.
As a result the Champagnes created are intensely soil-expressive and strikingly original in personality, with vibrant balance and intensity. 1606 magnums produced. Disgorged 2020. | Christophe Baron

...the most winning of Baron's Champagnes, with admirable depth of flavour and a pleasantly lingering finish. This has all the benefits of 100% Pinot Meunier with a bit more depth than most. | 95 points, Charles Curtis for Decanter

The most reserved wine in the range is the 2016 Brut Nature Les Alouettes, from a southeast-facing site in Charly-sur-Marne. Unwinding in the glass with scents of citrus zest, apricot, orange oil and pear, framed by hints of wet stones and struck match, it's medium to full-bodied, tightly wound and chalky, with racy acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse... | 93+ points, William Kelley for The Wine Advocate

...ample and broad, with a real sense of volume that grows over time. Layered and beautifully resonant, the Alouettes is also the most sensual and immediate of these wines. Even with all of its intensity, the Alouettes is translucent and so expressive, even in the early going. Spice, dried pear, flowers and nutty accents linger. | 94 points, Antonio Galloni for Vinous

Champagne always tastes better in magnum. | Ernest Hemingway