Ulysse Collin Les Enfers Blanc de Blancs 60 Months Base Vintage 2014

I'm trying to conserve my few bottles of Collin's NV Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Les Enfers (2014) 60 months, but temptation got the better of me as I wound down my barrel tastings of the Côte d'Or's 2022s this December. If anything, this wine has only become more spectacular since my initial review, and it's certainly even more expressive. Wafting from the glass with complex aromas of pear, hazelnuts, honeycomb, buttered toast, pomelo, iodine and smoke, it's full-bodied, deep and vinous, with a satiny attack that segues into a seamless, layered palate of striking intensity, concluding with an immensely long, sapid finish. Its greatness is testament both to Collin's unstinting work ethic and remarkable vision for vineyards that, a decade ago, no one had heard of.

Disgorged in March 2020 with 2.4 grams dosage, the NV Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Les Enfers (2014) 60 months is based on the 2014 vintage. Indeed, it's the same tirage that was released last year after 48 months on lees, but its additional year sur lattes has transformed it into an altogether different wine, one that attains new levels of texture, sapid nuance and quite simply excitement. Unwinding in the glass with scents of freshly baked bread, honeyed pears, pomelo, blanched almonds, praline and white flowers, it's full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, with a textural attack segueing into a deep and concentrated mid-palate that's pure and precise, girdled by racy acids and complemented by an elegantly pillowy mousse, concluding with a long, intensely mineral finish. It is testimony to Olivier Collin's immense ambition and relentless work ethic that he has achieved such results not in the celebrated terroirs of the Côte de Blancs or the Montagne de Reims, but rather in the little-known Val du Petit Morin, and in the process, he is expanding the parameters of the possible in Champagne.