Champagne Helene· Cote des Blancs

Two point eight hectares. That is the entire domaine Hélène Beaugrand built from scratch in 2014, and it is the kind of grower I exist to find, a first-generation vigneronne on the Côte des Blancs, working the chalk and belemnite marl by hand, making a tiny quantity of Champagne under her own name.

Everything points one direction: clarity. The vineyards are worked manually, the Chardonnay sees no oak, the wines go out as Brut Nature with zero dosage after four years and more on lees. Nothing is added to soften or flatter. The Vieilles Vignes cuvée comes off vines planted in 1955 and arrives as pure, taut, chalk-driven Blanc de Blancs, with the length that only old vines on this soil seem to give.

Production is small enough that I allocate it by the case and rarely advertise it. If you want to taste what a single committed grower can do on three hectares of grand-cru chalk, this is the bottle.