Pierre Gerbais - Grains de Celles Extra Brut NV (750ml)
Price: $64.99
| Producer | Pierre Gerbais |
| Country | France |
| Region | Champagne |
| Varietal | Pinot Noir, Chardonay, Pinot Blanc |
| Sku | 205445 |
| Size | 750ml |
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Wine Advocate: 92 Points
Derived entirely from the 2021 harvest and disgorged in November 2024 with a dosage of two grams per liter, Gerbais’s latest NV Extra-Brut Grains de Celles is a mosaic of the estate’s vineyards, mirroring the domaine’s overall plantings: 50% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Blanc. It opens with aromas of pear, spring blossoms and yellow apple. On the palate, it is medium- to full-bodied, with a crisp, energetic core of fruit, ripe yet racy acids and a saline finish. This cuvée well reflects the cool, comparatively late-ripening 2021 season, with harvest commencing on September 17.
Today, the Aube is home to a new generation of producers of varying competence, but the softly spoken Aurélien Gerbais stands out as one of the subregion’s three most confidence-inspiring and reliable voices. This 18-hectare estate in Celles-sur-Ource was planted by Aurélien’s grandfather and father and today amounts to 50% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Blanc. The vines, averaging around 40 years of age, are derived from massal selections and are divided almost evenly between northerly and southerly expositions. Half of the family’s holdings have never been exposed to chemical treatments, having been planted after the abandonment of such products. The estate was also among the first in the subregion to bottle Pinot Blanc in isolation.
Aurélien himself studied viticulture and enology in Beaune and, in 2008, honed his skills alongside Olivier Lamy in Saint-Aubin before returning to the estate in 2009. By 2011, he had established perpetual reserves with the intention of reimagining the range around a series of lieu-dit bottlings. Vineyard work is rigorous and conducted according to organic principles—with the exception of a single treatment against mildew. Like many in Champagne, Gerbais questions the long-term impact of the heavy copper sulfate applications that fully organic farming often necessitates. Harvest is conducted with meticulous selection (a rarity in Champagne, where separating press fractions is often deemed an adequate response to imperfect sanitary conditions at harvest). The estate employs both a pneumatic press and a traditional vertical basket press.
Gerbais soon discovered that a strategy of late picking did not suit his terroirs, as it produced wines that were overly ripe and rounded, lacking racy acidity and the sensation of salinity. Today, fruit is harvested at 11% to 11.5% potential alcohol, focusing simultaneously on pH and phenolic ripeness, rather than on sugar accumulation alone. Vinification takes place exclusively in stainless steel. With 20 plots in total, the estate vinifies each parcel separately in its own tank. Sulfites are generally added at pressing and disgorgement, though Pinot Noir is vinified without sulfites until disgorgement. After a maturation of three years sur lattes, the Champagnes are disgorged and released with a low dosage—typically around two grams per liter.
In 2018, Gerbais bottled his first single-vineyard expressions derived from the perpetual cuvée, and by 2021 his vision had fully materialized as the wines reached the market. Today, his efforts are giving rise to Champagnes of considerable complexity: simultaneously succulent and vibrant, deeply vinous and refined. These wines are elevating the estate from the ranks of reliable Aube producers to the echelon of the exceptional. Readers who have not tasted Gerbais’s Champagnes in recent years would be well advised to seek out his excellent single-vineyard bottlings without delay.
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