A Walk on the Wild Side - Incredibly Distinctive, Complex Grower Champagne - Under $40

I always used to tell my old retail clients that Pinot Meunier dominant Champagne is the one

Champagne I would drink with a steak. It is wild, uninhibited, super expressive and can stand up to almost anything, including steak. But at Yann Alexandre they add some Chardonnay to make the Pinot Meunier a bit more civilized.  If great wine and great art is about veering from the standard course, then this Champagne qualifies.   Why do you want it?  Because a few times a year, you want something great but a little different and this qualifies in spades.

To be able to sell the Yann Alexandre NV Brut Noir today for as little as $38.99 on the 4-pack is just crazy.  The aromatics just rock; a huge whiff of floral aromas are intermingled with brioche and yeast notes that are finely detailed.  The palate offers wonderful depth and complexity.  This much complexity and depth for under $40 a bottle is just incredible. I could not stop waxing over this wine, which was the first one they poured for me. It kept opening and opening as well and I regret that I did not have a chance to spend more time with it.  These are for sure fruit-driven Champagnes that also have wonderful balance, elegance and finesse and reflect their terroir wonderfully.

Yann Alexandre is a small domaine of 6 hectares in the North in the small village of Courmas in the area of the Montagne-de-Reims. They have been producing wine since the mid 18th century which is about 9 generations. The wines are just what I like in Champagne. Lively, fruity, very precise, a tad unconventional and of course offering incredible value for the money.  They, like many other winemakers in the region, respect the land but don't go overboard and use the the lutte raisonnée method, which means "the reasoned struggle." This is a way of saying that producers who use this "reasoned struggle" are much less aggressive in their usage of chemical and pesticide treatments, but at the end of the day they will use it as they are running a business and need to harvest grapes to make wine.

They were very passionate in explaining that these are wines of terroir as some Champagne can be blends of so many parcels and vintages that eventually the terroir gets lost in translation. Not here.  Each parcel is vinified separately. They are aged in their cool cellar for 5 years before release. The malo, partial malo or no malo is decided on a vintage by vintage basis. The wines are all fermented in oak barrels so there is body to these Champagnes. But not huge body and they retain wonderful elegance and finesse. This is a house that has very small production of only 30,000 bottles a year split up with multiple cuvees.

In the early 18th and 19th century Ponce Alexannder sold grape musts to the Grande Maison de Champagnne, which is how this estate got started. The first wine-maker, Louis-Marie, made clear wine but continued to sell wines to the powerful merchants of Champagne. In 1933 Gaston Marcel decided to bottle their own Champagnes and market under their own name. They became NM's in that they still sold to traders and merchants but it was greatly reduced. In 1966 Yves joined his father Marcel and advanced the operation more. He extended the vineyards, cellar and bought a new more modern press. Today, Yann carries on that tradition and has continued to make tweaks that include using extensive cover crop in between the vineyard rows.

Champagne is a very provincial region and the difference between producers in the North and producers in the South are striking. Oger, Mesnil and Cramant are names that give Champagne enthusiasts shivers. You also have all the Grand Marques up north like Pommier, Moet & Chandon and the ilk. In between all the big houses you have hundreds if not thousands of small little houses that have become increasingly popular over the past 15 years. The South is more grassy and hilly with valleys and forests and the attitude is a touch more laid back. Yann Alexandre has the southern laid-back attitude in a northern area. And, oh the quality and style are exactly what you, me and everyone else is looking for.

NV Yann Alexandre Brut Noir - $41.99 ($155.96 4-pack)