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Etienne Calsac Champagne Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs L'Echappée Belle

Regular price $99.98

Étienne Calsac’s L’Échappée Belle Extra Brut is a bright, chalky Blanc de Blancs that combines youthful citrus energy with enough reserve wine and lees aging to avoid feeling austere.

It is 100% Chardonnay, assembled from clay-limestone vineyards across the Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne and Grande Vallée de la Marne. Grauves—whose cooler exposures produce particularly incisive Chardonnay—is an important component.

Expect:

  • Crisp yellow and green apple
  • Lemon zest and preserved lemon
  • White peach, pear and delicate flowers
  • Crushed chalk and a lightly saline note
  • Subtle brioche, almond and toast
  • Fine, creamy mousse against brisk acidity
  • A clean, stony and persistent finish

The wine is largely fermented in stainless steel, with roughly 20–25% in barrel, using spontaneous fermentation. Malolactic fermentation is generally allowed, and the wine is bottled without fining or filtration. That combination produces an appealing contrast: steel and citrus on the attack, then a gentler creaminess through the middle.

This is Calsac’s introductory cuvée, but it is not simplistic. It offers a particularly good snapshot of the contemporary grower-Champagne style: dry, terroir-focused and minimally handled, yet accessible enough to serve as an aperitif.

Serve at 9–11°C / 48–52°F in a tulip or white-wine glass. It works beautifully with oysters, scallop carpaccio, smoked fish, sardines, sushi, shellfish, goat cheese or lightly fried foods. Drink now for brightness, or hold for roughly three to six years to develop more brioche, hazelnut and preserved-citrus complexity.

Compared with Les Rocheforts, L’Échappée Belle, is:

L’Échappée Belle Les Rocheforts
Multi-terroir blend Single Bisseuil parcel
Bright, floral and immediately accessible Deeper, more vinous and mineral
Mostly stainless steel Greater barrel component
Aperitif-friendly More strongly suited to food
Citrus and fresh apple Preserved citrus, apple, chalk and savory spice





Shipping Policy

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  • Unless your delivery address is on the West Coast, we strongly discourage you from selecting “Ground Service” as your shipping method. During the winter and summer months, weather conditions (temperature) and longer delivery times can often result in the spoilage of your order. It doesn’t make sense to invest in fine wines and then take the chance of ruining them due environmental factors during transit (faster and safer delivery generally isn’t much more expensive). We don’t make an additional profit on accelerated delivery, but we frequently recommend faster shipping options to our customers outside the West Coast.
  • You must be 21 years of age to order or receive alcoholic beverages.  Any shipments containing alcoholic beverages are sent with an “Adult Signature Required” sticker, and the common carrier that delivers our merchandise is required to ask and check for identification upon delivery. This means that an adult will have to be present at the time of delivery.  Please consider shipping to an office address.
  • During periods of extreme weather, we attempt to ship wines at the beginning of each week in order to get shipments to you before the weekend. This is because we have no control over the temperature conditions at our freight carriers’ warehouses. The result may be that your shipment doesn’t go out the day that you place an order.
  • We ship by Fedex or Fedex Ground. Our prices include packaging materials. Insurance may be available for an additional charge.
  • Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. will arrange for shipment on behalf of the buyer, to an address specified by the buyer, provided that Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. in its sole judgment believes that such shipment will not subject Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. to the risk of any sort of legal action or other harm. If a buyer lives in a state where the direct shipment of wine by Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. violates the law, we suggest that the buyer provide an alternative address in another state or have their wine shipped to a third-party storage facility in a direct shipping-friendly state.
  • Various states impose limitations on the quantity of alcoholic beverages that may be purchased and brought into their jurisdiction by a purchaser from another state without requiring the purchaser, a seller or shipper to possess certain licenses or permits. Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. does not, as a condition of sale, assume any obligation nor bear any responsibility whatsoever for applying or obtaining any permits or licenses. Therefore, we recommend that you investigate the possibility of such limitations, and determine the manner in which alcoholic beverages shall be brought into your state from California, so as to comply with all of your state’s requirements.
  • Wine shipping rules in the United States are controlled by the state you live in. We do not ship wine to the following states at this time:
    • Alabama
    • Alaska
    • Arkansas
    • Delaware
      Kansas
    • Kentucky
      Louisiana
    • Maine
      Maryland
    • Massachusetts
      Michigan
    • Mississippi
      Montana
    • Nevada
      New York
    • North Dakota
      Oklahoma
    • Pennsylvania
      Rhode Island
    • South Dakota
    • Tennessee
    • Utah
    • Vermont
    • Virginia
    • Wisconsin

List Updated 2/1/2023
Please inquire about international shipping.

Vintage Wine Merchants
377 Santana Row, Suite 1135
San Jose, CA 95128
408-260-1115

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