Tarlant Champagne Brut Nature “Argilite” 2016 750ml

50% Chardonnay/50% Meunier. The Tarlants began experimenting with Georgian qvevri in the 2011 vintage, inspired by their first trip to Georgia and a deep dive into the ancient and local winemaking traditions of the country. They imported, with no small degree of difficulty, a few of these traditional, pure-clay (no sand), beeswax-lined vessels in various sizes and buried them next to their winery. Six vintages in, the experimentation and exploration are ongoing and successful. “Argilité”, a sort of spontaneous mash-up of argile (clay) and mineralité, became the wine’s nickname around the winery and stuck. The Tarlants think of it whimsically as meaning “clay-ity” (the main impact of the time in clay being on the texture of the wine). Note that “Argilité” is the only word on the label in the western alphabet; the rest is strikingly written in the Georgian language.

As for the making of the wine: the grapes are gently pressed and the juice moved by gravity into the underground qvevri. It undergoes a spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts and 10 months of aging on the lees with no malolactic fermentation. The wine is bottled wihout fining and aged sur lattes. The current lot of Argilité was disgorged in 2023 (one soon to follow was done in 2025). The Tarlants have landed on a particular parcel for this wine, planted by the family in 1987 in the lieu-dit of Notre Dame in Celliers-lès-Condés (Vallée de la Marne). It features mainly Chardonnay and Meunier on Lutetian limestone soils, facing south on a slope overlooking the confluence of two small rivers.