Pierre Peters : Les Montjolys Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvee Speciale 2013

Characteristics and Tasting Notes of Les Montjolys Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée Spéciale 2013 by Pierre Péters

Tasting

Color

The wine shows a clear, pale yellow robe with lingering green highlights, framed by a fine and steady stream of persistent bubbles.

Nose

The nose opens on white flowers and freshly baked bread, moving toward citrus fruit. With aeration, notes of biscuit and hazelnut emerge, joined by a hint of marzipan, apricot, and candied lemon, before giving way to a vivid chalky minerality.

Palate

The attack is pure, intense, and deeply concentrated, carried by a bright, almost cutting acidity that supports a surprisingly deep and pliant texture. The palate unfolds with green apple, candied lemon, linden, and gentle spice, before stretching into a long, taut finish marked by almond and minerality.

Serving and cellaring

Les Montjolys Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée Spéciale 2013 benefits from an extended aging period of at least six years on the lees prior to disgorgement, which has shaped its depth and texture. This long maturation gives the wine a strong aging potential, allowing it to continue developing further in the bottle over time.

Other characteristics

The cuvée carries a low dosage of between 3.5 and 4.5 grams per liter, placing it firmly in the very dry Brut category, where the residual sugar simply rounds out the acidity without softening the wine's overall freshness and mineral drive. Malolactic fermentation is carried out only partially, preserving tension alongside the richness brought by the terroir.

A Mesnil-sur-Oger Blanc de Blancs by Pierre Péters, shaped by the clay-and-flint terroir of Montjoly

The Estate

Champagne Pierre Péters was established in 1919, when Camille Péters began harvesting, vinifying, and selling bottles under his own name in Mesnil-sur-Oger, at the heart of Champagne's Côte des Blancs. Today the estate is run by Rodolphe Péters, sixth generation of the family and a trained winemaker, who took over direction in 2008. Pierre Péters remains entirely family owned, specializing exclusively in Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Champagne, built on massale-selected old vines and a strong terroir-driven philosophy.

The Vineyard

Les Montjolys comes from the Montjoly lieu-dit in Mesnil-sur-Oger, a Champagne Grand Cru village. Unlike the shallow, nearly bare chalk found elsewhere in the village, this site is distinguished by a deeper layer of clay and flint soil, the only location in Mesnil-sur-Oger where this geology appears so prominently. The cuvée is drawn from seven old-vine parcels planted on this terroir, each vinified separately before blending.

The Vintage

The 2013 growing season in Champagne began with a cold, damp winter followed by a cool, rainy spring, which delayed vine development by roughly two weeks compared to the decade's average. This early delay was never fully recovered, pushing the harvest later than usual. Summer, however, brought exceptionally high levels of sunshine in July and August, allowing the grapes to reach full ripeness while retaining notably high acidity due to the later picking and cooler late-season temperatures.

Winemaking and aging

Les Montjolys Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée Spéciale 2013 is vinified from seven separately fermented parcels of old vines from the Montjoly lieu-dit, with the final blend drawn from a careful selection of the finest lots. Malolactic fermentation is only partially carried out, preserving freshness alongside the richness typical of this terroir. The wine then rests for at least six years on its lees before disgorgement, allowing the development of fine autolytic notes and a creamy, well-integrated mousse.

Grape Varieties

This cuvée is produced from 100 % chardonnay.