On his recent trip to Champagne, Chris tasted several producers not yet available stateside. We're thrilled that one of them – perhaps the most intriguing – is here.

These are some of the purest expressions of the Paris Basin; wines that, incredibly directly, channel the ancient seabed that defines the world's most iconic terroirs.

And, it's a story that simply must start with visuals. More than just a Champagne cave; the property is also a working excavation site and museum...

Photos via Polaner Selections: Ancient fossils and the Legrand family's underground museum, an endless cave 300m deep; Thibault Legrand with his more recent co-planting of all seven Champagne varieties.

Legrand-Latour is based in Fleury-la-Rivière, a village on the right bank of the Marne known for its fossil-rich soils. For most of its four generations, the family sold fruit to the local co-op. That changed when Patrice Legrand, an amateur paleontologist with a passion for digging (literally), began excavating chalk tunnels beneath the vines. In the process, he uncovered thousands of fossilized marine shells—remnants of the village's ancient seabed. The shells are almost otherworldly; many are forearm-length, and 45 million years old.

Patrice’s 300m deep (hand carved!!) Cave aux Coquillages became both a geological museum and a wine cellar. But it was his son, Thibault Legrand, who took things further in 2012, when he took over the farming. With guidance (and space for pressing) from his lifelong friend Flavien Nowack, by 2016 he was working organically, later biodynamically, and by 2017 he had pulled out of the co-op entirely to make wine on-site.

Today, Thibault makes Champagne with specific geological references, each named for a specific epoch (Lutétien, Éocène, Yprésien) and focusing on the site's history beneath the vines. Fruit is barrel fermented with native yeasts, aged +/- 3 years on the lees under cork and (a la Agrapart) dosed with fresh grape juice from the previous harvest.

This is daring work that comes out refined, transparent and wildly delicious.

2020 Legrand Latour Éocène Brut Nature, Champagne $125
50/50 Chardonnay/Pinot Meunier from the village Verneuil, aged a year in barrel on the fine lees and 40 months sur lattes, with zero dosage. Delicately chiseled yet buoyant.

2020 Legrand Latour Yprésien Brut Nature, Champagne $135
Pinot Meunier/Pinot Noir from the villages Verneuil and Vandières, aged a year in barrel on the fine lees and 40 months sur lattes, with zero dosage. Textured and beautifully mineral.

2020 Legrand Latour 'Lutétien' Extra Brut, Champagne $155
50/50 Chardonnay/Pinot Noir from the village Vandières, aged a year in barrel on the fine lees and 40 months sur lattes, with zero dosage. The most powerful of the trio, pure chalk.

SHOP LEGRAND-LATOUR

Chris lunched in Champagne at Le Garde Champêtre – a great restaurant inside an old train station in the Aube – where he was served a set of wines he'd not seen in the US. All were delicious and of course, Legrand-Latour was among them.