Sometimes it takes time to do things very well. Those who love wine, literature and music will not contradict me ...

I remember well Jean Vignier, always sitting in the office and tasting room of the Champagne house Paul Lebrun, chatting with customers and friends, sometimes faithful for several generations to the estate. An office, that no longer exists by the way, because the estate and the cellar have been thoroughly redesigned and modernized in recent years. Now the cellar is larger, new-fangled and bright. Stainless steel vats, ranging from 1500 litres to 15000 litres, contain the most recent wines, as well as the prestigious reserve wines that forge, together with the soil and climate, the style the Paul Lebrun champagne.

Here, daughter Nathalie and son Jean jr., created the “Cuvée Jean” in memory to their father, who would have turned 80 this year. Released in 2000 bottles only, it combines four excellent vintages: 2004, 2008, 2011 and 2012.

Blanc de blancs obviously, because the house only cultivates Chardonnay, the wine seduces immediately by its golden colour and the trains of slow and shiny bubbles which rise in the glass. You’ll linger a wile on the rich and savoury nose of dried fruits, Mirabelle plums and brioche, before passing on to the palate, where the wine hides his real surprise. Beyond roundness and the typical, straight acidity of the Côte des Blancs, you’ll find intense fragrances of citrus fruits: Kumquat, combava, lemon peel... accompanied by Mirabelle plums, a buttered brioche and some notes of physalis, so typical for ripe blanc de blancs champagnes. The wine shows grip and zest, with an intriguing blend of redcurrant acidity, lemon peel bitterness and pomegranate sweetness.

You should savour it with some almond tiles a so French Paris-Brest pastry...