Blanc de Blancs
Style · Intermediate · 3 min read
Blanc de Blancs literally means "white from whites". In the sparkling wine world it refers to a wine made entirely from white grape varieties, almost always Chardonnay in the UK, Champagne and most other cool-climate regions. It is considered the most elegant, age-worthy style of traditional method sparkling wine.
What the term means
The phrase comes from the Champagne region, where the term has been used since at least the 19th century. In Champagne, Blanc de Blancs is a wine made from 100 percent Chardonnay. Outside Champagne, the term is sometimes applied to wines made from other white varieties, but in the UK it almost always means Chardonnay.
The complement is Blanc de Noirs, a wine made from black-skinned varieties pressed gently enough to give a white juice. Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and, occasionally in the UK, early-picked Pinot Blanc all appear in Blanc de Noirs cuvées.
Why producers make Blanc de Blancs
There are three reasons. The first is style: Chardonnay brings a particular combination of citrus, white peach, baked apple and, after long lees ageing, brioche and toasted nut. The second is longevity: the higher natural acidity of Chardonnay, especially in cool climates, gives the wine a longer ageing curve. The third is prestige: a single-varietal wine allows the winemaker to show off a specific terroir or a specific block of vines.
In the UK, top cuvées from Nyetimber (the 1086 and the Blanc de Blancs), Ridgeview (the Blanc de Noirs and the Cavendish), Gusbourne (the Fifty One and the Blanc de Blancs), Hambledon (the Première Cuvée and the Blanc de Blancs) and Chapel Down (the Kit's Coty Blanc de Blancs) all use the format to showcase their best Chardonnay parcels.
How it is made in the UK
The base wine is a still Chardonnay picked earlier than for a still wine, with a target sugar around 9 to 10 percent potential alcohol, a high total acidity of 9 to 11 grams per litre and a pH of 3.0 to 3.2. After pressing and settling, it is fermented cool in stainless steel or, increasingly, in old oak for a proportion of the blend. The wine is then blended across blocks and vintages for the non-vintage cuvée, or held back as a vintage Blanc de Blancs from a single year.
The second fermentation happens in bottle, with the wine spending at least 24 months on lees for the basic tier, 36 to 48 months for the vintage tier, and often 60 to 84 months for the prestige cuvée. Disgorgement, dosage and final bottling follow, and the result is a wine that is dry, intensely flavoured, fine-bubbled and built to age.
Tasting a Blanc de Blancs
A young English Blanc de Blancs smells of green apple, lemon zest and a faint chalky mineral note. With a year or two on cork in the cellar, the primary fruit shifts towards baked apple, pastry and brioche. After five years, nutty and honeyed notes start to appear. The bubbles are finer than in a Pinot-led blend because Chardonnay's lower protein content produces smaller, more persistent bubbles. Serve at 8 to 10 degrees Celsius in a tulip glass to concentrate the aromatics.
Where to find it in the UK
Off-trade, the leading examples are widely listed at Majestic, Berry Bros. & Rudd, Corney & Barrow, The Wine Society, and the high-end supermarket tiers at Waitrose and M&S. On-trade, they appear on the wine lists of The Fat Duck, The Wolseley, Restaurant Sat Bains, The Vineyard at Stockcross and many of the more ambitious gastropubs in London, the South East and the West Country.