Champagne Countdown: Pure Chalk Beauty - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Wine of the Week

Champagne Countdown:
Pure Chalk Beauty

by Joshua Greene • December 3, 2021

Valérie Varnier

As we count down to a new year, here are some Champagne picks from critic Joshua Greene’s December issue tastings to pop as the ball drops (or beforehand if you don’t feel like waiting)!

This wine is based on the 2017 harvest, the first season Valérie Varnier was working on her own, having taken charge at their Côte des Blancs estate after her husband, Denis, passed away. Her vineyards are all chardonnay, from her home base of Avize, with parcels in Oger, Cramant and Oiry. That fruit comes together in a pretty righteous wine: A pure chalk beauty with impeccable precision, it has the floral scent of freshly churned butter and the earthiness of a fresh-dug potato combining in rich elegance, a luscious wine without weight. To NYC retailer Mariko Kobayashi, it showed off “great growing, getting everything right in the vineyard.”

Imported by Skurnik Wines, NY

95

Varnier-Fannière Champagne Grand Cru Brut

$63

Where To Buy

Every week, our editors highlight a wine that intrigued them in our blind panel tastings, expanding on their tasting note in this space. These are entirely editorial choices; there are no paid placements. Subscribers can also access the original tasting note by searching h ere.

Joshua Greene

Joshua Greene is the editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits magazine.

This story appears in the print issue of December 2021.
Like what you read? Subscribe today.

TAGS Champagne W&S December 2021 Wine of the Week

David Paradela
Associate Editor

David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

Corey Warren
Tastings Editor

Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

Tara Q. Thomas
Editor at Large

Since Tara Q. Thomas joined Wine & Spirits in 1997, she’s traveled the wine world from Argentina to Australia. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, with more than 20 years of experience in the food and wine world, Tara puts her culinary knowledge to use as W&S’s resident food critic, and is the critic for the wines of Austria, Germany, Eastern Europe, Argentina, and the Mediterranean. She’s particularly enthusiastic about the wines of Greece, where she once lived and cooked. Outside of W&S, Tara has authored two books, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wine Basics and The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Wine; contributed to the Oxford Companion to Cheese as well as Oxford’s forthcoming volume on spirits; and writes a wine column for Culture: The Word on Cheese.

Patrick J. Comiskey
Senior Correspondent

A former sommelier, Patrick J. Comiskey serves as the W&S critic for all domestic wines outside of California—including New York, Oregon and Washington—and contributes articles on the wines and viticulture of these areas. His wine travels include regular visits to US wine regions, as well as trips to France, Italy, Germany and Australia. Comiskey’s writing credentials include contributions to the San Francisco Chronicle’s wine section, the Los Angeles Times, Bon Appétit and the Robb Report, and also teaches classes and moderates panels on viticulture, wine tasting and various wine regions. His recent book, American Rhône: How Maverick Winemakers Changed the Way Americans Drink (UC Press 2017), was shortlisted for the 2016 André Simon Food & Drink Book Award and 2017 Louis Roederer Domaine Faiveley Wine Book of the Year.

Annette Farrell
Production Manager

Annette's entire career has revolved around magazine and print production, developing systems, and providing production support for dozens of magazines at a number of large publishing companies, including McGraw Hill, Condé Nast, and Hearst. Annette has joined the Wine & Spirits team to manage our production systems and develop and optimize our print production process.

Susannah Smith
Editorial Coordinator

As a retail buyer, Susannah traveled abroad extensively, especially in Italy and Greece, to learn the stories behind her favorite wines and then connect others with the vines and the humans that make them. She is excited to join W&S, since that is the magazine’s mission. Raised to be curious, she finds, after over 20 years in the world of food and wine, that she loves best how wine touches so many disciplines—history, language, geology, cuisine, biology, horticulture—keeping the quest for knowledge fresh every day.

Joshua Greene
Publisher & Editor

Editor and Publisher of Wine & Spirits since 1986, Joshua Greene began drinking wine with meals during a summer in Galicia, Spain, at the age of 13. In later years, he worked in wine shops in western Massachusetts and served as wine captain at Wheatleigh, a small inn in Lenox. After graduating from Princeton University in 1981, Greene pursued a career in magazines, focusing on the management of special-interest publications. His work with Wine & Spirits began on a consulting basis, eventually leading to his purchase of the magazine in 1989.

Greene has traveled extensively in the wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and all the major wine regions of the United States. In addition to his duties as editor and publisher, Greene serves as the critic for Napa Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Rioja, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He also writes feature stories and commentary for each issue of the magazine.

Roy Schneider Jr.
Director of Finance

Roy joined Wine & Spirits in 2003 to oversee the daily and long-term finances of the magazine. He handles cash flow works alongside the publisher to develop and fine tune strategic plans; Roy also manages basic business operations of the company—from IT to human resources. If there’s a problem, he’ll solve it.

Having begun his career on Wall Street, Roy holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and has worked for a number of corporate and boutique firms from New York to Japan. While he clearly enjoys wines—having, over the years, sampled many thousands—he remains true to his Caribbean roots and maintains a primary love for rum.

Chloe Jenkins
Account Manager

Having spent nearly a decade in the marketing world, Chloe followed her enthusiasm for wine to work at a wine marketing company, before joining the team at Wine & Spirits. She loves using creative strategy to help brands tell their stories and connect with their audiences. Chloe holds a Level 3 (Advanced) Certification from the WSET, as well as specializations in French and Italian wine.

Patricio Tapia
Senior Correspondent

After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.