Frerejean Frères Brut Première Cru Champagne AOC
Frerejean Frères

Our Score: 92

A very harmonious Champagne with aromas of freshly baked bread and acacia honey greeting your nose, followed by ripe pineapple, pears, and preserved citrus. Crisp, but not cutting, this Brut is smooth with a paprika note emerging and a long finish.  Bubbles are fine, numerous and persistent, and yeast are present but not invasive.

Grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir

Pairing: This is a Champagne for the entire meal, it helps to clean the palate without being too sharp.

Appellation: Champagne AOC, France
Champagne AOC (Appellation d’Origine Controlée) is an appellation of sparkling wines rigidly defined by three elements:
1. The grapes need to be grown and vinified in the specific geographical area East of Paris, between Reims, Epernay and la Vallée de la Marne.
2. Grapes can only be Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier;
3. The fermentation method is in 2 phases: the wine is first fermented in large tanks then filtered before undergoing a second fermentation in the bottle for as many years as the winemaker decides. The best champagne stays on the yeast in the bottle for as much as 7-10 years before being put on the market.

More than 300 million bottles of Champagne are produced every year in an area of 34,000 hectares (roughly 85,000 acres).

Interesting anecdote: Wines that use the same vinification method (a second fermentation in the bottle) BUT are grown and vinified in French regions other than Champagne (or elsewhere in the world beyond France), cannot be named Champagne. In France they are called Crèmant de… followed by the region of origin; in Italy they are called Metodo Classico (Franciacorta DOCG, Trento DOC); in Spain they are called Cava, from the region of origin.