Top 10 award-winning eco-friendly wines from the Organic Masters 2020
25th June, 2020
by
Patrick Schmitt
8. Champagne Drappier Quattuor Blanc de Quatre Blancs
- Producer: Champagne Drappier
- Region: Champagne
- Country: France
- Grape variety: 25% Arbanne, 25% Petit Meslier, 25% Blanc Vrai, 25% Chardonnay
- Abv: 12%
- Vintage: Non-vintage
- Closure: Agglomerated cork
- Approx. retail price: £50+
- Medal: Gold – Organic Wine Masters 2020
This year’s Organic Masters featured a range of particularly good sparkling wines, notably from Cava, Prosecco and England. However, the top performer was a Champagne, and a remarkable one from Drappier.
Called Quattuor Blanc de Quatre Blancs, it employs the full four white grapes of Champagne, including Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. This means that it provides a home for some of the historic, near forgotten grapes of Champagne, while also supporting organic farming in the region – a relative rarity. It also helps that this high quality output hails from the region’s most sustainable producer – Drappier is carbon neutral.
As for the character of the fizz, it’s a Champagne of great quality, and interest, with a wide range of traits, from roasted hazelnut and pastry, to an array of apple flavours, from stewed and baked to fresh and ripe, before finishing with a chalky grip and taste. In short, a complex, balanced and highly appealing glass of fizz, that, for the Champagne specialists among you, mixes some oxidative apple skin characters with more reductive smoky, roasted notes.