Champagne Hure Freres Instantanee Extra Brut 2016
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Dunnuck
Jeb
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Instantanée (or "snapshot") is designed to show the character of a single vintage. The 2016 vintage Blanc de Noirs shows a firmly structured backbone of electric acidity, yet features a rich core of crunchy red apple and plum, dark berries, fine doughy notes, marzipan and baking spices. While this wine is ready to enjoy now, it can benefit from aging. On the palate, a rich texture yet perfectly balanced with a long invigorating saline finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Champagne Blanc de Noirs Instantanée is approximately 80% Pinot Noir and the rest Chardonnay. The nose is generous with sweet red raspberry, wet rock, and very pretty, fresh aromas of biscuit. The palate is soft with its mousse, and it is ripe with kirsch, tangerine, and salty wet earth. It needs a bit more time but is showing a lot of potential and has great energy now. Drink 2024-2040.
Other Vintages
2012-
Wong
Wilfred -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
Third-generation vignerons and brothers François and Pierre Huré represent a new wave of artisan champagne production that stands to elevate the regional notions of excellence. Based in Ludes on the northern side of Champagne’s pedigreed Montagne de Reims, these open-minded perfectionists farm 10 hectares of vineyards—80 percent of which belong to them and 20 percent which are rented from family vineyards and those of other like-minded partner-growers. Having both trained in Burgundy, the Rhone and New Zealand has fostered global perspectives in these native sons, as well as a desire to question convention. While they have farmed sustainably for 20 years, they have also been farming with organic and select biodynamic practices since 2009, though François prefers to not pursue any official certification. Precise, fresh, generous and terroir-driven champagnes define the house style at Huré Frères. Each parcel is vinified separately and is later blended. The wines age in both in tank and neutral oak, depending on the cuvee, with their cellar also featuring a perpetual-reserve solera begun in 1982. Dosages are never systematic; they are added by blind tasting only. Their finished wines offer incredibly pure and expressive aromatics, a fine, persistent bead, charm, elegance and deep, vinous earthy pleasure.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Associated with luxury, celebration, and romance, the region, Champagne, is home to the world’s most prized sparkling wine. In order to bear the label, ‘Champagne’, a sparkling wine must originate from this northeastern region of France—called Champagne—and adhere to strict quality standards. Made up of the three towns Reims, Épernay, and Aÿ, it was here that the traditional method of sparkling wine production was both invented and perfected, birthing a winemaking technique as well as a flavor profile that is now emulated worldwide.
Well-drained, limestone and chalky soil defines much of the region, which lend a mineral component to its wines. Champagne’s cold, continental climate promotes ample acidity in its grapes but weather differences from year to year can create significant variation between vintages. While vintage Champagnes are produced in exceptional years, non-vintage cuvées are produced annually from a blend of several years in order to produce Champagnes that maintain a consistent house style.
With nearly negligible exceptions, . These can be blended together or bottled as individual varietal Champagnes, depending on the final style of wine desired. Chardonnay, the only white variety, contributes freshness, elegance, lively acidity and notes of citrus, orchard fruit and white flowers. Pinot Noir and its relative Pinot Meunier, provide the backbone to many blends, adding structure, body and supple red fruit flavors. Wines with a large proportion of Pinot Meunier will be ready to drink earlier, while Pinot Noir contributes to longevity. Whether it is white or rosé, most Champagne is made from a blend of red and white grapes—and uniquely, rosé is often produce by blending together red and white wine. A Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay will be labeled as ‘blanc de blancs,’ while ones comprised of only red grapes are called ‘blanc de noirs.’