Pierre Gerbais Champagne Extra Brut Grains de Celles NV

Aurélien Gerbais went to wine school in Beaune, not Reims — which makes sense, because if you grow up in the Aube you live closer to Burgundy than to the rest of Champagne. He worked with Olivier Lamy in St. Aubin, came home to Celles-sur-Ource, and still says he considers himself more Burgundian than Champenois. Grains de Celles is the flagship: Pinot Noir with Chardonnay and a full quarter Pinot Blanc, a grape almost nobody in Champagne bothers with anymore, from the family's old plots. Fermented in tank without added sulfur, aged around three years on the lees, finished bone-dry as Extra Brut. It's tangy and mineral with an unusual softness — that's the Pinot Blanc talking.