St. Gall Brut Champagne Selection – Sustainable

Champagne De Saint Gall is the flagship label of Union Champagne, an Avize-Based “new-generation” cooperative on a meteoric rise to stardom. Historically most of the company’s wine has been sold to the region’s iconic houses to be blended into their top luxury brands, a practice which still accounts for a sizable proportion of Union Champagne’s business.

As far as cooperatives go this is without question the wealthiest of its kind in the world let alone the wine trade, with a staggering  1500 acres of Grand Cru vineyard land, 1500 acres of Premier Cru vineyard land, and 330 acres unclassified vineyard land.

Most of the firm’s acreage lies in the sought-after Côte des Blancs zone, where they farm more Grand Cru acreage than all other Champagne houses combined. Now banded together, Union Champagne’s member/farmers can be considered the kings of ultra-premium Champagne, as no other firm in Champagne holds close to this amount of elite-level acreage.

Union Champagne’s recent shift, a commitment to producing and selling finished wine on their own, is the most interesting thing to happen in Champagne in quite a while.  

This is De Saint Gall’s entry-level bottling, but it is anything but shy, with a high proportion of Pinot Meunier bringing soft texture and layers of floral notes. 55% Chardonnay 25% Pinot Noir 20% Pinot Meunier, 36 months on lees, 10 g/L dosage

Fresh and easy to drink, Sélection Brut has a beautiful golden hue with a nose of white flowers and a lovely long finish. Toasted cashews, aromas of dried grapefruit and lemon citrus lead to quite a fresh, dry, and crisp palate with simple, apple and pear flavors.