The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.
Wine Description
The Story
L’Apôtre is the estate's top cuvée — a single-vineyard champagne from the La Pierre St-Martin vineyard, with vines planted in 1946 by Léclapart's own grandfather. The wines are barrel matured in order to match the concentration and intensity of grapes from these old vines. In each vintage, L’Apôtre is known for presenting the greatest complexity and expressiveness of any of the cuvées.
Léclapart uses no reserve wines, instead producing each champagne from a specific vintage that appears on the label. Chaptalization was only performed in 2001 and 2007, and the initial fermentation uses only wild yeast. Amateur and half of Artiste are aged in enameled steel tanks, while the rest are matured in oak casks. To stabilize the wines and avoid the use of sulfur, all cuvées undergo malolactic fermentation. The wines remain "sur lie" until shortly before the next vintage's harvest and are filled without fining, filtration or cold stabilization. All champagnes are zero dosage.
Leclapart's wines are notable both for their extremely high quality, yet also an uncompromisingly distinctive nature. They are remarkably pure and nuanced, and express the essence of Trépail. The wines are released relatively young, as Léclapart lacks warehouse space. Ideally the champagnes will be allowed to mature for several years in the cellar before being enjoyed. Decanting is recommended should the champagnes be opened young, as they can be otherwise inaccessible in their youth.
Vintage 2003
A challenging vintage for Champagne in the face of an unprecedented heatwave during the summer months. The wines are characterised by the year's unusual circumstances. Large-scale frosts destroyed most of the projected yield and they were followed by hail and an extremely hot summer. Harvest was kick-started early on August 21st and yields remained minuscule at 8,100 kg/ha. Atypically round, ripe, sun-kissed wines that miss freshness and backbone. The total acidity level was notably low, at 5.8 g/l. Only the very best performers were able to avoid heaviness and overripe aromatics. This vintage was not largely declared but some famous names, Krug and Dom Pérignon at the fore, chose to experiment with it. Both produced excellent 2003s and Dom Pérignon's chef de cave at the time named the vintage as one of the creations he is most proud of. Some special cuvées surfaced, such as 2003 by Bollinger, as the house found the year did not stylistically fit into the La Grande Année range. Palmer & Co also took a curious route and made its 2003 only in magnum, releasing it much later than usual as cuvée Grands Terroirs. The ageing capacity of 2003 is much debated. Dom Pérignon's Richard Geoffroy had great confidence in his 2003 and he actually regretted releasing it too early. The jury is still out, but personally I am inclined to drink mine sooner rather than later, as the advancement post-disgorgement has in most cases been rather rapid and the wines miss the acidic backbone necessary for retaining freshness.