Pierre Paillard Bouzy Grand Cru Les Mottelettes

Tatler Champagne Guide 2024-2025

Grape Makeup:

100% Chardonnay

Sweetness Level:

Extra Brut 

Ageing on Lees:

Four years

Price:

$$

Cellar:

Five to ten years

Category:

Culinary

What

One of the best producers in Bouzy, focused unusually on Blanc des Blancs, is now an eighth-generation grower.

Where

Bouzy, Montagne de Reims; 11ha of estate vines, mainly Pinot Noir but with 40% Chardonnay (unusually high for the area) planted between 1961-1970 with a massale selection, organically farmed; now making wines from Ambonnay, Verzy, Verzenay, Ludes, Taissy (all Montagne de Reims) and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger (Côte des Blancs).

Why

The south-facing site Les Mottelettes was planted in 1961 as a massale selection of Chardonnay, a novelty in the Pinot-focused village of Bouzy. The wine is a very rounded, bold expression of the grape, a product of the site but also its fermentation in oak and its lees ageing on cork, instead of a crown cap, for four years.

What Else

Les Maillerettes is Mottelette’s Pinot Noir sibling, also a massale selection, planted in 1970, thus similar in age, and subjected to the same winemaking. But it is a step up again in richness, with an oily macadamia nut, fondant and dried peach nose and an Oeil de Perdrix-like sturdy phenolic structure.

Tasting Notes

Rich, appley and ripe, this has a golden apple, baked quality, plush with butter pastry, all quite heady and enticing. The palate has a very frothy mousse, but is rich and flavourful with the same baked apples, cinnamon spice and butter pastry, like an apple pie. Acidity provides balance, especially for the butteriness of the back, though it doesn't give angles per se. Very rounded, gourmand style.

Try It With

Classic western Sunday roasts

When To Drink

Main course

Perfect For

Your friend who knows all the best pastry shops in town

TL/DR

Rich, gourmand and ripe

Supplier

Watsons