Barrat Masson Les Margannes

Tatler Champagne Guide 2024-2025

Grape Makeup:

100% Chardonnay

Sweetness Level:

Brut Nature

Ageing on Lees:

40 months

Price:

$$

Cellar:

Five to ten years

Category:

Culinary

What

A relatively new grower estate in the chalky Côte de Sézanne founded by husband and wife team Aurelie Barrat and Loïc Masson, making ultra-austere, mineral wines, founded in 2010.

Where

Villenauxe La Grande, the southernmost village in the Côte de Sézanne; 7ha of Chardonnay (~90%) and Pinot Noir with some Meunier and other varieties, split between Bethon (highly chalky area) and Villenauxe (more clay), certified organic by Ecocert.

Why

Les Margannes is the more generous of Barrat Masson’s two cuvées, vinified 85% in barrel and 15% in stainless steel, while Fleur de Craie is roughly the inverse. This adds some more flesh through the middle but the flavours stay very much in the demure, mineral realm. Forthright in their yeastiness but never becoming overtly toasty.

What Else

Fleur de Craie was the skinniest Blanc de Blancs in our Signature Tasting at the Tatler Champagne Festival and won many people over with its refined, whisper subtle charms. Though showing a hint of drawn butter on the mid-palate, it stays tight lipped nearly from start to finish, with a firm chalky texture from the use of 10% taille (a press fraction with more phenolic content), which is absent from Les Margannes.

Tasting Notes

This is very mineral, with ozone and wet stone, with pine resin and unripe pear fruit adding to a nose that is austere and a little eccentric, but very clean, with gentle leesy notes of white bread toast. Sour cream is very strong on the entry, with a sourdough bread quality opening up though the mid palate with tart lemon and citron fruit that becomes increasingly acidic and angular. Though it gets slightly broader, it remains sharp throughout, more a narrow diamond than a lens. There is a very pleasant fresh baguette yeastiness on the back.

Try It With

Crisp flavoured, salty seafood appetisers and small plates

When To Drink

Entrées or snacks

Perfect For

The friend who writes haikus

Tatler Tip

Make sure you have plenty of time to enjoy this one; it could easily be overlooked in a lineup of more powerful wines.

TL/DR

Austere, eccentric and angular

Supplier

Deco Wines