Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs “VV26”, Frerejean Frères

Old-vine Grand Cru Chardonnay. Eight years on the lees.

VV26 stands for vieilles vignes de 1926, Chardonnay from vines planted a century ago. It is the flagship of Frerejean Frères, a small house in Avize founded in 2005 by three brothers, Guillaume, Richard and Rodolphe Frerejean Taittinger, who are Taittinger descendants on their mother's side. Their chef de cave is Didier Pierson, a fifth-generation Champenois.

Why it tastes the way it does

Three things, and they all point the same direction. The Chardonnay is fermented and aged twelve months in Argonne oak before blending, which gives it weight rather than obvious wood. It then rests around eight years on the lees, roughly triple what a non-vintage Champagne needs, which is where the bready, nutty depth comes from. And it ages under agrafe, the old metal staple that holds a real cork in during the second fermentation, rather than the crown cap almost everyone uses now. It is slower, more expensive and harder to handle, and producers who bother tend to be the ones who care.

Dosage is low, around 6 grams per litre, in keeping with the house style. Production runs to a few thousand bottles per release.

In the glass

Decanter's note gives broad roast lemon, cream and anise. Jancis Robinson found bright gold, a very fine bead and a particularly arresting bready nose, with the Chardonnay tension arriving only at the very end of a delicate, creamy palate, and rated it 17.5 out of 20. Joanna Simon in The World of Fine Wine scored 94 points and called it vinous, savoury, rich, intense, concentrated, complex and long.

One honest note: VV26 is released in successive editions built on different base years, and the scores above were not all given to the same liquid. We are listing them as reviews of the cuvée rather than of this specific bottle.

The details

• Producer: Champagne Frerejean Frères, Avize
• Appellation: Champagne Grand Cru, Côte des Blancs
• Villages: Cramant, Avize and Oger
• Grape: 100% Chardonnay from vines planted in 1926
• Alcohol: 12.5%
• Vinification: 12 months in Argonne oak, then around 8 years on the lees under agrafe
• Dosage: low, around 6 g/L
• Format: 750ml
• Drinking window: now. This is a mature, oxidatively styled Blanc de Blancs, not one to lay down further.

Serving and pairing

Serve at 50 to 54°F, not colder, and use a white wine glass rather than a flute. This has enough body for roast chicken, turbot, or a hard aged cheese. Champagne this developed is wasted as an aperitif.

Common questions

What does agrafe mean and why should I care?
It is the metal staple that holds a cork in the bottle during the second fermentation, the way all Champagne was made before crown caps. A handful of houses still use it for their top wines, on the argument that cork lets the wine breathe differently over a long lees ageing. It is a marker of how the house thinks, more than a guarantee of anything.

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