Blending as compromise

Good morning, This week turned into a proper marathon! At last we were able to welcome the very first on-site masterclass in Champagne with Beverage Academy Norge, a project I'd been working towards for a long time, and what a week it turned out to be. We tasted wines that few ever get the chance to taste, visited producers who rarely open their doors to guests, and experienced what I consider the real Champagne. Thank you to every producer we visited this week, for the engagement, the passion and the sheer drive. I'm already looking forward to the next trip. One thing that really stayed with me was Agnes Corbon's reflections on blending. Agnes is adamant that blending is, and always will be, a compromise, and that holds true for every producer in the region. Everyone claims they want to make the best possible wine through blending, which sounds fine, but it simply isn't achievable. Think about what happens if you pour all your finest base wines into one blend: what's left becomes reserve wine, the B wines. The following year, those B wines are all you have left to blend in, and they'll never lift the final wine. So there's always a trade-off between how much of the best wine to use now and how much to set aside for the years ahead, so you can keep producing a very good wine, year after year. That compromise exists for every producer, yet hardly anyone talks about it openly. The full video of Agnes explaining this is on Crayeres' Instagram. The week brought 60 new tasting notes across 13 producers, spread over 16 separate occasions tied to the Champagne trip and masterclass. The heaviest sessions fell on Wednesday 21 October, tasting at the houses in Avize and Ambonnay, and on Thursday 22 October, tasting at the house in Reims.

A complex nose blends smoky minerality, white flowers, citrus peel and summer rain, with white pears and green apples. The palate stays taut yet dense, adding raw coconut, green and roasted coffee beans, and remarkable complexity and richness.

Rich, mineral, saline and gossamer-light, it is also taut and extremely complex. Autolytic character runs through, with light tropical fruit and coconut alongside. It is lovely now but needs time.

Flowers and berries lead the nose, with red apple skin and blood orange alongside. On the palate wild strawberry and grapefruit zest sit over chalk. The classic Comtes autolytic character carries through to a saline finish.