Jean MilanOger, Côte des Blancs

Producer profile
PL "the most notable source of pure Oger chardonnays is Jean Milan, headed today by Caroline Milan and her brother Jean-Charles." The domaine owns 6 hectares in the village and purchases additional fruit from the village growers. "Milan's vintage-dated Symphorine always comes from the same four parcels and it's classic Oger: a generous, mouth-filling champagne." "The house's top wine, Terres de Noël, comes from a site of the same name and has been made as a single-vineyard champagne since 1985. In some ways, Terres de Noël isn't typically Oger, as its wine is often more structured and austere, with a strongly chalky minerality. Milan's vines here are up to seventy years old, which undoubtedly contributes to the wine's depth and expression." TyS no mention. ToS 82. "A traditional producer whose wines have yet to impress. Taking into account the vineyard locations, the quality should be much more exciting." TT 2017 Champagne catalog page 11 (see also 2016).

Tasting notes

Symphorine 2002. Disgorged August 12 2008. Composite cork, compact enough to be used to recork the bottle. No pop but perfectly retained effervescence. This is pristine: spring-fresh and coolly fragrant. Magnificent like a snow-white borzoi taking a serious little girl for a walk in an American park (a little bit of wet dirt on the slackened leash; a cotton candy salesman; a squirrel sampling a crocus). The girl's great-great-grandmother's perfect posture as she turns a page of Liszt - list Lista - on her piano in a different land and time. A whiff of the piano's black lacquer and reflected peonies shedding their petals in fragrant delirium. Rye bread, steaming earth, lark's attentive silence. A sullen toddler "saving for later" his sticky caramel in the family hound's silken hair. Happiness, heartache, triumph. A wine so divine can really get the imagination going! All the stars. Purchased at Catherine's in autumn 2020 for $73. ⭐⭐⭐