Champagne Clandestin· Cote des Bar

Benoît Doussot and Thomas Gautherot started Clandestin in 2009 in the Côte des Bar, two hours south of Reims. No family vines, no cellar, no history, only a conviction that zero-dosage Champagne off Kimmeridgian soil could stand next to anything from the Côte des Blancs. I think they were right, and I've staked some of my list on it.

Les Revers is the house's main cuvée, a Pinot Noir parcel on clay-limestone, vinified bone-dry. It tastes of its soil, chalk, apple skin, a long saline finish, with none of the sugar, butter, or toast that props up the big marques. That, to me, is the whole point of grower Champagne, stated plainly.

The domaine works four and a half hectares. Boréal is the Chardonnay off a north-facing slope, hence the name; Austral is its south-facing counterpart. Every cuvée is Brut Nature, zero grams dosage. These wines sit outside the Grand Cru villages but at the dead centre of where Champagne is actually getting interesting, and I allocate them to the people who already understand that.