Champagne Fleuron 2019 from Gimonnet

I am dreaming the new Reform government is forcing all disabled people to wear royal blue t-shirts tucked into red shorts, but only in the winter months…

“Wake up!”, bellows The Editor from the next room. “I need Champagne!”

This is a demand that will wake me. I get up, stagger to the kitchen and get glasses and a bottle of Fleuron 2019 from Gimonnet.

Fleuron, meaning ‘flagship’, used to be Gimonnet’s top wine, until they started making Special Clubs. It is sold as a Premier Cru, but as you can see on the back label (below) a whopping 75% of the wine comes from gorgeous Grand Cru villages.

Gimonnet have called 2019 the vintage of the decade, citing the ripe fruit of the wines coupled with their good acidity.

I have to admit that it worries me to a degree, that this Champagne is 13% alcohol. Does this mean it is going to be too buxom and flabby? Will Gimonnet, that maker of rapier-like wines, have made something fat and unbalanced. I do not have much time to worry as I have made it to the lebensraum and joined The Editor.

“Come on, come on!”, he demands. “I have salted crisps, pop that thing!”

Here we go!

Champagne Blanc des Blancs Fleuron 2019, Pierre Gimonnet et Fils

My god, it is ripe and fruity. “There is apple, pear and lovely, lovely ripe grapefruit!”, I exclaim.

Then we get caught up in the wonderful minerality. We gush about its creamy richness, yelp about its powerful grip of chalk and chipped stone. The Editor dives in and takes a big mouthful.

“That fruit, though!”, I continue, “It is verging on the exotic. There could even be passionfruit there!” I glance at The Editor for confirmation. He is looking like a squirrel who has misplaced his nuts as he swirls the fizz in his mouth. I have a swig.

The Editor swallows and ejaculates, “Jesus Christ! That has English-levels of screaming acidity!”

I am swirling as I dig through my satchel looking for the Gaviscon.

Yes, it is fearsomely acidic. It screeches down my oesophagus and into my stomach like a mouthful of pulverised glass. After glugging the antiacid and shuddering, I confirm The Editor’s view and suggest I might not be able to drink half a bottle without being violently ill.

We catch our breath and then simultaneously comment that there is quite enough fruit, of deliciously ripe character, to act as a foil for that acidity.

It has the structure, too. A deep, richness of minerality, ending with a massive chalky grip on the finish. It is not a thin, acrid wine; there is definite weight and power, presumably from all that Grand Cru fruit.

Between us, we decide that whilst it is the most painful wine we have drank since we had an English sparkler based on the frigid 2021 vintage, it really has the balance to match that fearsome acidity.

In this sense, it is quite like the 2002 Fleuron The Editor and I tried a few years after we met. I bought a few bottles because it was affordable and popped one soon after they arrived. It was unadulterated agony.

I moved my remaining bottles to my cellar at Domaine Dujac, secretly hoping that someone there would be foolish enough to drink them. They were not.

Five years later I came back to them, and risked drinking one. It was glorious! Weighty, dense, structured, but balanced and charged with exciting energy. Five years’ ageing had bestowed total harmony on it, and I wished I had bought more.

I have six of the Fleuron, seven if you count the bottle I have at home that I am no-longer planning to drink over Christmas. I take a stab – which is what drinking Fleuron 2019 feels like receiving – that this wine will turn out much the same. In a frightening sort of manner, it has balance and harmony. It certainly has the fruit and complexity to last and improve and, by arse, does it have the energy to stay fresh.

So, The Editor and I will chide you as an impatient fool if you drink this wine without ageing it for four or five years. It will broaden out, increase in complexity, and gain more accessible harmony over that time.

I would feel more than a little duplicitous if I said this is a great wine, but it will be a great wine if you age it in a decent cellar before you drink it. I bet you will be richly rewarded!

Now… what do I do with the Special Club Cuis Premier Cru 2019 from Gimonnet I was planning to drink soon with our friend Richard – I might give him a stomach ulcer!!