THE HISTORY OF BLANCPAIN

Dr. George Derbalian in one of the wine experts
from Lettres du Brassus. Dr. Derbalian is the
founder of Atherton Wine Imports located in
Northern California.
Not only has he become one of the United
States’ premier importers of fine wines, but he
has acquired a well-deserved reputation as one
of the leading and most respected wine connoisseurs
and expert tasters in the world.
Each year Dr. Derbalian travels the wine circuits
of Europe and the United States meeting with
producers, owners of the finest domains, chefs de
chai, and other key figures in the world of wine.
Throughout the course of each year he tastes literally many thousands of current production
and vintage wines. In this Issue, Dr. Derbalian shares with us his discovery of
the extraordinary champagnes of A. R. Lenoble.
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weight and richness which is prized in great
white burgundies).
Le Vallon and Les Cités may sit at the pinnacle
of the official rating system, both as
grand cru Chouilly vineyards, after all they
are full 100 point grand cru plots, but up the
hill was something better still, Le Montaigu.
There, within sight, indeed within a moderate
stroll from Le Vallon, is found the Les
Aventures vineyard. “Mountain” is far too
strong a term to describe the elevated perch
of Les Aventures; “knoll” serves better. But
this knoll stitches together perfect exposure
and an ideal combination of chalk and minerals
making it a grand cru of grand crus.
The official scale stops at 100 points, but Les
Aventures is finer. Only a handful of rows
constitutes the entirety of the vineyard,
which is a monopole, meaning that Lenoble
owns all of it.