Laurent Godard Helge Champagne Brut NV
- Rich, complex
- Champagne
Laurent Godard speaks of his family as a clan. His great-grandparents met by chance, fell in love and bought a small plot of land in 1920. This was planted to vines shortly thereafter with the family’s vineyard holdings expanding slightly with each subsequent generation. Laurent himself took over the vineyards in the 1980s and has been focused on producing exceptional Champagne since then.
Profile
Helge is the top of the range for Laurent, composed of 60% chardonnay, 20% pinot noir and 20% pinot meunier, all of which is organic. The wine is quite rich and complex, as you’d expect from the reserve of a Champagne house. There is freshness on the nose of course with aromas of white peaches and citrus, leading to a palate of candied lemons, allspice and evident minerality. This is big, bold, celebratory Champagne that’s as much at home at a wedding toast as on the table paired with a buttery seafood dish.
It’s cool, we get it, you want to know absolutely everything about this wine. Well here you go, go nuts.
Specs
- Region
- Champagne
- Vintage
- NV
- Cellaring
- 2024
- Preservatives
- Sulphites
- Alcohol by Vol.
- 12.5%
- Closure
- Cork
- Bottle Vol
- 750mL
- Blend Info
- 60% Chardonnay 20% Pinot Noir and 20% Pinot Meunier
- Serving Temp.
- 8°C
Region
Champagne
Champagne is not generic sparkling wine, it's a region. There I said it. Get it right people. The reason the French get their lingerie in a twizzle when we call Trilogy 'Champoyne' is the history, the money and the angst that have all gone into making Champagne what it is today: a bureaucratic, strictly controlled, marketing-driven behemoth, that still manages to pump out some of the world's finest and most consistent wines. Adding bubbles to wine was a masterstroke of genius, and makes wine from marginal regions not only palatable, but unique and eminently desirable. But it's the way the grapes are grown, the land they're grown in, and the way the bubbles are generated that makes traditional method sparkling (which all Champagne is) special. There will always be alternatives, but none have the history and marketing power of the luxury Champagne powerhouses. You're not buying wine; you're buying a brand name. And that's ok.