A visit to Champagne Larmandier-Bernier

I almost missed it from the road.

Visiting Champagne Larmandier-Bernier, and there is just a plaque, with a house and a shed behind it. No chateau, no plush surrounds, just a low-key complex across the road from a Renault dealership on the outskirts of the town of Vertus.

Sure, it’s Champagne, where vineyards fill the hillsides and winemaking facilities are just buildings in town, but this is still a Champagne house that feels different. Aside from the whole chalk walls and underground caves thing, I could have been in Margaret River or the Mornington Peninsula, complete with a few amphorae for good measure.

Arthur Larmandier (below) is now at the helm too, and he’s younger than me, running a Champagne house, which is so so good..

I’ve always loved these wines, and it was a pleasure to peek behind the curtain and see a winery approaching Champagne production in the way I’d want to do it. Arthur is knowledgeable, well-travelled (he’d only just returned from a few weeks in Australia) and has none of the god complex that comes with famed estates.

Then again, grower Champagne is a different world to the big houses. By nature, the focus here is on vineyards. At Larmandier Bernier, you start with biodynamically farmed vines, with Arthur keen to only use fruit from plots they control, and only on the Côte des Blancs. Indeed, while he’d be interested in grapes from further north, he doesn’t see it as manageable if he can’t get to his vineyards in under an hour of driving.

Then, in the winery, it’s all wild ferments in barrel, and extra brut or zero dosage wines at every turn, with no filtering or fining, and plenty of time maturing in oak.

Speaking of wood, Arthur has a winery filled with a hodgepodge of different barrel sizes and shapes, from barriques to big foudres. Interestingly enough, amphorae are on the way out for Champagne production, as Arthur finds they have a dominant flavour that is only really suitable for making the house’s rare still red wine, the Vertus Rouge.

I didn’t get to try that bad boy, but on the pink front, the Rosé de Saignee NV sure was a juicy rosé Champagne. Orange/light red, it’s a juicy, bountiful drink that is widely approachable, if a bit overtly raspberried for me to love.

The Latitude NV and Longitude NV pair are the ones we’re probably most used to seeing from Larmandier Bernier, and they didn’t disappoint. I’d never quite conceptualised that the differentiator between these two Champagne is where on the Côte des Blancs the grapes come from. You have Latitude, which is a deliberately more rounded style from the plots around and south of the town of Vertus at the southern end of the Côte. Longitude is a more linear style from Vertus north, and it’s the wine for me every day of the week (and worth the extra dollars.

Where the focus really kicks into gear is the vintage wines, with the 2017 Terre de Vertus a gloriously impressive fizz from what is a less heralded year. Clean lines and perfectly shaped, finessed, and a little steely, it’s probably more of a classic Blanc de Blanc style than a grandiose Pinot Chard Champagne, but it very much in that ultra-pure style that I love. You could argue the more powerful 2016 Chemins d’Avize is probably going to score more points with its density and compact palate (and phenolic length), but it feels less refined and detailed (though not exactly a step down in quality, just different). The 2015 Vieille Vigne Du Levant is a swashbuckling Champagne of super length as well, with a flagship-like depth and carry. It’s a bold, powerful Champagne with grand vin punch, but I’d still take the Terre de Vertus’ purity if pressed.

Arthur very kindly opened a 1995 Avize for reference too, which was largely a nutty, golden and wooly curio, but entertaining and still refreshing.

The only regret here? I should have bought some of that ’17 before coming home as it’s a shedload more expensive here in Australia (#WETisakiller)…