Hundred Hills Preamble First Edition 2016

Hundred Hills' first commercial vintage, from two well-ripened parcels: 50% Chardonnay clone 95 and 50% Pinot Noir clone 115. Two year-old vines and the ripest bunches, just two per vine. This was the only vintage their ex Roederer advisor Michel Salgues (who was given a lifetime award by champagne and sparkling wine specialist Tom Stevenson in his annual awards) saw. Just 4,000 bottles. This is the second-version release, which spent 40 months on lees and was disgorged in June 2021. Dosage was 11 g/l.
Different colour – less pink than the younger Preambles. Quite a bit of autolysis and something agricultural. Leesy and still a little astringent. Still very youthful. I can see why quite a high dosage was needed.