Stepping in the hallway of Lanson in Reims is like stepping into the history of Champagne.
The house was founded in 1760 by François Delamotte who owned vineyards in Ay and Cumières. In 1798 it adopted the Maltese Cross as its emblem because its new owner, Nicolas Louis Delamotte, François’s second son, was a knight of that order. By the middle of the XIXth century, when Jean Baptiste Lanson, partner to the Delamottes took over the business and gave it its current name, it had become an internationally recognized company, enjoying the benefits of an exclusive contract with Percy Fox, giving it access to the United Kingdon and making it the Champagne of Buckingham palace.
Today Lanson represents five million bottles sold every year, 80% of them outside France. The blends are dominated by Pinot Noir, but Chardonnay makes up 30% of the blend, and bring in freshness and balance. The house jewel is the Clos Lanson, a real secret garden located in the heart of Reims, across from the Cathedral. It is a 100% Chardonnay plot whose grapes are vinified in oak barrels. The 2006 vintage, currently on the market, was limited to precisely 7,870 bottles, each one of them numbered.
The second claim to glory at Lanson is the Noble Cuvée, which exists as a Brut, a Blanc de Blancs and a Rosé. Characterized by its freshness and fruitiness it is the quintessential expression of the Lanson style. Hervé Dantan, Lanson’s cellar master, has convened Arvid Rosengren, the World Best Sommelier 2016, to a vertical tasting of both the Noble Cuvée Blancs de Blancs and the Brut!
The travel back in time starts with the Blanc de Blancs 2002. It is a blend of grand crus, like Avize, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger and Chouilly, vinified without malolactic fermentation, aged for ten years on the lees and still another one after disgorgement. Right away Arvid Rosengren praises the wine for its purity, and stresses how open it is for a 2002. The 1997 is a rare vintage. Not all houses of Champagne produced one. Not that it wasn’t a good year. But coming after the outstanding 1995 and 1996 it was a tough act to follow. The 1994 is a great surprise for Arvid. That year had been cool and humid, but the wine is “supple, balanced, pleasantly vinous”, he says. The 1990 is huge. “It is a great wine, very complex, massive at first but with a light and fresh finish”, Arvid says. Finally the 1989 brings this superb series to a close with a wine that is at once richer and softer, testimony to a warm year.
The Lanson Noble Cuvée Brut is an assemblage conceived in 1979 and reproduced ever since. It is 70% Chardonnay Grand Cru and 30% Pinot Noir from Verzenay. Hervé Dantan starts the tasting with the 1998 which is quite balanced. Then comes the 1995 that Arvid finds to be “perfect right now”. “Its low acidity and its balance make it very attractive”, he says. The 1988 stands out. Made from a great vintage, it is “impressive and excellent, and yet can still improve”. The tasting ends on the 1981, a rare vintage, produced in limited amount because of a small harvest, but which thirty-five years later gives a wine at once “astonishing and surprising, having reached another step in its evolution from the 1988 and quite difficult to identify in a blind tasting”, according to Arvid Rosengren.
Back in the real world after such a wonderful time warp, Arvid still feels under a spell: “To be honest I was a little apprehensive about Lanson, he says, because it is one of those major houses that pay as much attention to their image as they do to their Champagnes, but this dual vertical tasting was fantastic. The Blanc de Blancs 1990 was exceptional, perfectly balanced. I liked the 1994 as well, even though the year does not have much to recommend itself. Same thing for the 1981, the wine was superb and it is a vintage you seldom get a chance to taste. Among the Noble Cuvée Brut, the 1988 is really a monument that towers over all the rest. But I was impressed with the overall quality of these wines. This was a great tasting experience.”
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