"L'Etincelante" Brut Nature

Tarlant
France
Champagne
2002

57% Chardonnay/29% Pinot Noir/14% Pinot Meunier. Most vintages, the Tarlants make a unique, usually multi-parcel wine as a snapshot of that particular vintage's personality. The name "Etincelante" evokes the “shimmering” nature of the sunny 2002 harvest, "a dream harvest" per Benoìt Tarlant. From six parcels across four villages on a mix of chalk, flint and limestone soils with vines averaging 40 years old. The vines are organically farmed and harvested by hand and the clusters very slowly and gently pressed. The juice ferments spontaneously with native yeasts in Burgundy barrels; the wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. L'Etincelante was bottled in 2003,disgorged in 2022  and received zero dosage.

(*Note that the Tarlants make a subtle distinction between their terroir wines and vintage wines. The terroir wines--Vigne d'Antan, Vigne d'Or, and Vigne Royale--feature those names on the front label, while the vintage is tucked on the back in tiny type. The unique vintage-forward bottlings--like L'Etincelante 2002--feature the vintage in large type on the front with the whimsical name in much smaller type below it. The latter are only made in vintages that the Tarlants feel can age a minimum of 10 years.)

95 points
"The 2002 Brut Nature L’Étincelante is one of the most restrained 2002 Champagnes readers will come across. And it is absolutely exquisite. Delicate scents of apricot, chamomile, pear, baked apple tart, brioche and yellow flowers all lift from the glass. Medium in body and super-refined, the 2002 has so much to recommend it. This is a tremendous showing from Benoit Tarlant."
Antonio Galloni,
Vinous Media
May 2018
95+ points
"An assemblage of 57% Chardonnay, 29% Pinot Noir and 14% Pinot Meunier, the 2002 Millésime Prestige l'Étincelante (literally: the sparkling one) opens with an exciting bouquet that displays lovely matured yet precise fruit aromas along with brioche, stony and flinty notes. On the palate, the 2002 is intense, firm and vibrantly fresh, showing a juicy, chalky texture and stimulating salinity in the long yet still young finish. This is one of the best vintage Champagnes I have tasted here so far. Tasted in April 2018."
Stephan Reinhardt,
Wine Advocate
238/August 2018
94 points
" I last tasted the 2002 Tarlant “l’Etincelante” a year ago and the wine has continued to blossom beautifully since then. This is the family’s vintage-dated cuvée crafted from a mosaic of different grapes and vineyards, with the goal to try to craft a cuvée that captures the essence of a given vintage. The 2002 ended up being composed from a cépages of fifty-seven percent chardonnay, twenty-nine percent pinot noir and fourteen percent pinot meunier. The vins clairs are barrel-fermented and do not go through malolactic fermentation; the wine was bottled up for secondary fermentation in the spring of 2003. It was disgorged fifteen years later in 2018. The wine’s aromatic constellation is superb, wafting from the glass in a complex mix of apple, white peach, a complex foundation of chalky soil, a nice touch of buttery oak, hazelnuts and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is focused, complex and full-bodied, with a superb core of fruit, lovely soil signature, elegant mousse and impressive length and grip on the impeccably balanced finish. This wine is drinking beautifully today, but clearly has the potential to cruise along in bottle for at least a couple more decades. 2025-2050. "
John Gilman,
View From The Cellar
May 2025

SKU/Code: 
DB5813-02
Product Line: 
Wine
Sparkling
Varietal: 
Chardonnay
Farming Type: 
Organic