The Wine:

Hands down one of our favourite Champagne’s! A rich & complex wine made with a proportion of reserve wine going back to 1995 & aged on its lees for over 60 months. The Cuvée D is rich & intense, with lively acidity bringing balance, freshness & minerality. As James Halliday describes, “there is a plethora of spiced, dried & fresh fruits, balance & freshness provided by a surge of citrussy acidity on the finish. And aftertaste.” The Pinot Noir gives body & length to the wine, while the Chardonnay adds elegance & finesse. Fans of richer styles of fizz should definitely give this excellent wine a try.

Further Info:

Devaux Champagne was originally founded in 1846, by the brothers Jules and Auguste Devaux. Today, the estate is owned by the Union Auboise in the Côte des Bar; the heartland of Pinot Noir in Champagne. Physically closer to Chablis than Reims or Épernay, vines in the Côte des Bar are grown on Burgundian soils of Kimmeridgian marl and Portlandian limestone. Chef de Cave since 1999, Michel Parisot was named the ‘Sparkling Winemaker of the Year’ at the 2020 International Wine Challenge, a testament to Michel’s pioneering approach to winemaking.

The flagship ‘Collection D’ range uses only the first quarter of the press (the ‘coeur de cuvée’) and is aged for at least five years, contributing to flavour complexity and an integrated mousse. The ‘Cuvée D’ comprises at least 40% reserve wines, including wine from two solera systems dating back to 1995 and 2002. The ‘Ultra D’ is a low-dosage Champagne containing 40% reserve wines, showing wonderful freshness and length. The ‘D Rosé’ blends 53% Pinot Noir and 47% Chardonnay, with great finesse and hints of red berries. The ‘D Millésimé’ spends over ten years of extended ageing on its lees and displays exceptional complexity, structure and balance. Devaux ages most of their reserve wines in oak barrels of different sizes, toasts and ages, which are all sourced locally to minimise environmental impact. The intelligent use of oak in Devaux’s wines led Eric Label, Chef de Cave of Krug, to refer to Devaux as “the Krug of the Côte des Bar”.