Champagne’s 2015 vintage increasingly seems one in which a small subset of wines - call it the top 5% or so - has sufficiently distanced from the vintage’s main that the two feel like separate entities entirely. A wide qualitative gap within a vintage is more or less always the case, though here the distinction is more stylistic. The top '15s don't at all seem to epitomize the average '15; instead, they seem to belong to another growing season entirely.
The harvest date seems an important either/or, with later pickers piecing together wines of considerably greater depth and aromatic range than early harvesters. Both of Péters' single-sites - ‘Les Montjolys’ and ‘Les Chétillons’ - number among the later picked and as such show a textural seamlessness and layered feel that elude all but a few peers. ‘Complete’ is almost as boring a descriptor as ‘balanced,’ and yet there is a sphericality to the ’15s here that has it feeling more useful than usual. The lucid, juicy-ripe sweet citrus and apricot-y fruit integrate superbly with the racy acidity that is a ‘Chétillons’ trademark.
This cuvée always lengthens considerably with time on the cork, though it's here more clingy than usual. White pepper and delicate tea-like notes already press against the fruit, features typically needing a decade or more to peek through. Drink or hold with lovely results either way.
Cheers,
Jason
