Champagne Anthony & Clémence Toullec Les Deux Parcelles Extra Brut Rilly-la-Montagne Premier Cru 2019

Champagne Anthony and Clémence Toullec is a husband-and-wife team in the Montagne de Reims that we’ve had the immense privilege of visiting. After an afternoon in one of the most immaculately clean and zen-inspiring cellars we’ve yet found, I was immediately smitten with the expressive quality of their entire portfolio. They farm 4 hectares of vineyards spread across several plots, that include Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Meunier, with a focus on preserving soil health, promoting biodiversity, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

The Toullecs believe in low-intervention winemaking, allowing the terroir to speak for itself so that the wines can shine. They use indigenous yeast fermentations and vinify each plot separately to preserve the distinct characteristics of the terroir. But they keep an almost hospital-level degree of their meticulously clean cellar – so low intervention does not lead to any wayward character flaws in the final product. Their Champagnes are aged extensively on lees to develop complexity and depth, with grapes so good they even sell some of them to the revered Grande Marques house and Winston Churchill's favorite, Pol Roger. 

Their “Les Deux Parcelles” hails from two parcels in the Premier Cru village of Rilly-la-Montagne, the place where Vilmart et Cie has its headquarters. The charming barber’s pole-esque border around the label is your first clue at the delights that reside within – as the glass opens with aromas of Meyer lemon, orange zest, golden apricot, and buttery brioche. The flavors bring these notes and more – a complex cacophony of stone and citrus fruit alongside red raspberry, red currant, flake pie crust, vanilla chantilly cream, clay, cloves, cardamom, and a rocky, dusty gravel finish. So much going on here that you’ll want at least two bottles to get to experience it more than once.