After the Brut Nature, this stunning Champagne is Aurélien Laherte’s second Blanc de Blancs bottling. Les Grandes Crayères showcases Laherte’s two most chalky, mineral soils in Côteaux Sud d’Épernay (crayères means ‘chalk’). These parcels of 40-plus-year-old massale selection vines are situated on a west-facing hillside composed of Campanian chalk under 20cm of topsoil. The base wine was fermented wild in old barrels (aged three to 10 years) and didn’t go through malo, emphasising the wine’s chiselled qualities. It then spent 30 months on lees in bottle, and a further nine months resting after disgorgement before commercial release. The dosage was less than four grams per litre and the bottling was hand-disgorged.