Les Alouettes
Professional reviews and tasting notes from prior vintages added as published. Scores within parentheses indicate barrel samples:
2020 Les Alouettes
96 Points
The dense and delicious Les Alouettes comes from this site set at nearly 500 feet ... Baked apple and pear notes combine with salted cashew nut and shades of Yakima cherry on the nose. The palate is big and dense with great underlying finesse. Salty and chalky mineral-driven, enjoy now and over the next fifteen years. –Owen Bargreen, owenbargreen.com
95 Points
The 2020 Champagne Les Alouetts Brut Nature is clean and fruity with an appealing and delicately reductive nose on opening, revealing notes of fresh strawberries, orange blossoms, and pastry dough. The palate boasts a refined and silky texture. with a spritely, fine mousse, a wonderfully seamless feel throughout, and a gently tapering and clean, stony finish. It is a gorgeous wine already and hard to resist now, but readers should feel confident holding onto these wines. –Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com
94 Points
The 2020 Brut Nature Les Alouettes is deeply-hued and quite powerful. A Champagne of notable stature, the Alouettes offers a dramatic, intense expression of Meunier. There's gorgeous weight and resonance here, perhaps a touch more than is found in the other wines in the range this year. Meunier notes are decidedly amplified. Readers will find a very creamy, ample Champagne. Like all the 2020s, the Alouettes is a touch on the lighter side vis-à-vis some recent vintages. Zero dosage. –Antonio Galloni, Vinous
2019 Les Alouettes
97 Points
This is a supremely poised and elegant Champagne. Lots of grapefruit, honeycomb, white tea, citron peel, white apricots and salted almonds here, yet it’s linear and racy, with tight bubbles and a cool yet intense and very long finish. 100% Pinot Meunier ... –James Suckling, jamessuckling.com
97 Points
This brilliant champagne has the same level of depth and concentration as the scintillating 2018 and a displays a hare more than the ’17. It is already a joy to drink in terms of weight, salty presence and wet stone character. On the mouth you are greeted to a juicy core of salted melon and citrus fruits with nutty accents. With more air this really comes into it own, reveling in its saline-drenched character. This beauty really needs a decant if savoring in its heady youth. –Owen Bargreen, owenbargreen.com
96 Points
The 2019 Brut Nature Les Alouettes displays a decidedly more exotic flavor profile than in previous vintages, with notes of Asian pear, ginger, tangerine oil and hazelnut. A weightier and richer expression of Meunier than is typical, the Les Alouettes is intense, pliant, creamy and resonant to the core. –Antonio Galloni, Vinous
2018 Les Alouettes
97 Points
An impressively chiseled pinot meunier with aromas of lemons, pear blossoms, white apricots, hazelnuts and salted focaccia, with a sprinkle of sea salt and toasted sourdough. Tight and focused, with a medium body and fine bubbles. So much structure and sharpness here. 100% pinot meunier from vines planted in 1968. From organically grown grapes. Only in magnum. Disgorged April 2022. Zero dosage. Better after 2024. –James Suckling, jamessuckling.com
97 Points
...Intense ginger and white peach aromas combine with salted mixed nuts and a dusting of peat moss on the nose. The palate is plump and round, as the generous texture really entices. This has both the weight and bright acidity to cellar well for at least another 15 years — and potentially more. I would consider giving this one more year of bottle time. –Owen Bargreen, owenbargreen.com
95 Points
The 2018 Brut Nature Les Alouettes (Magnum) is a bit more tense and airy than the Hautes Blanches Vignes, Baron's other Champagne from the vineyard in Charly-sur-Marne. Elevation and strong winds in this site confer tons of sheer energy. White pepper, mint, crushed rocks and jasmine are all finely cut in this wonderfully chiseled, crystalline Champagne. Bright saline notes build into the palate staining finish. Superb. –Antonio Galloni, Vinous
94 Points
Baron's 2018 Brut Nature Les Alouettes is once again performing very well... Offering up aromas of ripe citrus fruit, freshly baked bread, dried white flowers and hints of the crisp stone fruit to come with more time on cork, it's medium to full-bodied, fleshy and vinous, with an ample core of fruit, racy acids and a long, saline finish. –William Kelley, The Wine Advocate
93 Points
Forward and lifted on opening, the 2018 Champagne Les Alouettes Brut Nature (as with the rest of the 2018 wines) takes on a deeper hue with notable copper appearance and is ripe with aromas of grapefruit, honeysuckle, ripe berries, and toast. Medium-bodied, it is linear through the palate, with a spritely though refined mousse, vibrant acidity, and a stony texture. Savory and ripe, it feels more persistent on the finish in its structure and will continue to improve with sometime in the cellar. Drink 2025-2035. –Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com
2017 Les Alouettes
96 Points
The scintillating Brut Nature Les Alouettes really needs about an hour of air to fully get going... the nose this takes on bright orchard and citrus fruits that collide with shades of allspice and clove. Plump and round on the mouth, the dazzling minerality really impresses. White peach, ginger dusted pastry crust and salty/stony undercurrents round out this incredible new wine that will cellar well for decades to come. The combination of finesse, range and weight makes this exceedingly hard to put down once opened. –Owen Bargreen, owenbargreen.com
95 Points
The 2017 Brut Nature Les Alouettes (Magnum) is the most potent and tightly wound of these three Champagnes from Christophe Baron. It offers up a beguiling mix of graphite, orange confit, dried flowers, earthiness, chamomile and spice, all in a dense, inward style that demands cellaring. The Alouttes shows the more earthy, savory side of Meunier. –Antonio Galloni, Vinous
95 Points
The 2017 Brut Nature Les Alouettes is excellent, bursting with aromas of golden orchard fruit, warm spices, honeycomb, plums and toasted bread. Full-bodied, fleshy and vinous, it's rich and sapid, with a layered core of fruit, a pretty pinpoint mousse and a long, saline finish. Seamless and complete, this bottling is particularly strong this year. –William Kelley, The Wine Advocate
2016 Les Alouettes
95 Points
From old vines planted in Charly-sur-Marne… The result is the most winning of Baron’s Champagnes, with admirable depth of flavour and a pleasantly lingering finish. This has all the benefits of 100% Pinot Meunier with a bit more depth than most. –Charles Curtis, Decanter
94 Points
The 2016 Brut Nature Les Alouettes (Magnum) is ample and broad, with a real sense of volume that grows over time. Layered and beautifully resonant, the Alouttes is also the most sensual and immediate of these wines. Even with all of its intensity, the Alouttes is translucent and so expressive, even in the early going. Spice, dried pear, flowers and nutty accents linger. –Antonio Galloni, Vinous
93+ Points
The most reserved wine in the range is the 2016 Brut Nature Les Alouettes, from a southeast-facing site in Charly-sur-Marne. Unwinding in the glass with scents of citrus zest, apricot, orange oil and pear, framed by hints of wet stones and struck match, it's medium to full-bodied, tightly wound and chalky, with racy acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse... –William Kelley, The Wine Advocate