It may have bubbles, but approach this majestic single-vineyard Champagne as you would a great still wine. Pull out your finest glassware (not flutes or coupes!) to best appreciate the deep aromatics and striking color, somewhere between rosé and a glistening amber. After all, it consists of 100% Pinot Noir from Bouzy, a village renowned for its grandiose blancs de noirs. Equally suited to festive appetizers as it is to a multi-course dinner or a bin in your cellar, this is eye-opening Champagne from one of the region’s most exciting growers.

Most producers fortunate enough to own land in the famous grand cru Sommerberg, one of Alsace’s most prized sites for Riesling, would be content to release a single Sommerberg Riesling each vintage. But Jean Boxler is no ordinary vigneron. Instead, he has identified subplots based on subtle differences in soil and vine age; each ferments in its own foudre, and if the vintage warrants it, each part may be bottled separately. Jean describes Vanne, which hails from nearly one-hundred-year-old vines on pebbly granite at the uppermost part of Sommerberg, as “a light and racy Riesling with lots of finesse.” It is not his richest Riesling, but it is certainly his most delicate, offering ethereal scents of spring blossoms with the crystalline purity of morning dewdrops.

Romain Taupenot farms an impressive collection of enviably placed sites up and down the Côte d’Or, including a bit of Corton in the esteemed climat Le Rognet. The house style of elegant, classically styled Pinot Noir is on full display in this bottling that is ready to drink today with a bit of aeration. You’ll find an inviting perfume of perfectly ripe red fruits and tannins silky as a fine pulp of Pinot Noir grapes, which is essentially what they are. New oak is kept to a minimum, and all the luxurious flesh is preserved through an unfiltered bottling, resulting in a splendid Burgundian Pinot of remarkable class.