The 2020 Extra-Brut Les Barres (100% Meunier) emerges from ungrafted vines in a site on chalk. Nervy and vibrant in the glass the 2020 is impressive but it is also very young. Dried pear spice chamomile and crushed flowers are beautifully delineated. Readers will find a tense chiseled Meunier very much in the mineral-driven style Alexandre Chartogne favors. I would be tempted to give this a year or two in bottle at a minimum. Chartogne pushes light oxidation in élevage for this wine a risky process undertaken to exalt the wine's mineral notes. In that process only about 30% of the lots make it into this bottling because of strict selection. Dosage is 2 grams per liter. Disgorged: December 2024. - By Antonio Galloni on April 2025 Alexandre Chartogne is one of the most thoughtful and introspective vignerons in Champagne. Chartogne also takes a lot more risks with his wines than most something that might not be evident because of his soft-spoken demeanor and shy personality. If a wine does not meet his exacting standards he does not bottle it as was the case with the 2020 Heurtebise. Alexandre Chartogne’s framework for Champagne divides wines into those that are composed of mostly mineral matter and those that are predominantly organic and are therefore more vulnerable to decomposition. Mineral wines are vinified and aged with minimal oxygenation. The goal is to preserve that mineral character. Chartogne believes that organic wines are less interesting and more likely to age relatively quickly. His goal is to transform some of their organic matter to mineral though gentle oxidation during élevage. As a result these wines (the Meuniers for example) see more oxygen during their time in barrel.