In Champagne, where legacy often precedes identity, Hélène Charbaut is forging something personal and intuitive. “Mes emotions comme moteur,” she explains, or “My passion is the engine.”

The fourth generation to farm her family’s vines in the Grande Vallée de la Marne, Hélène returned home in 2020 after formative years spent studying in Burgundy and working with Champagne producers Leclerc Briant and Péhu Simmonet. She marked her debut with a trio of single-variety, single-vineyard Champagnes that shimmered with intention. Her vineyards are tended organically and biodynamically, with biodiversity nourished by a shared flock of grazing sheep—an initiative she helped pioneer.

La Charbauterie is her only multi-parcel blend, a cuvée that gathers the threads of her story and ties them into a singular, striking expression. Drawn from old vines planted in the 1960s across Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Avenay Val d’Or, and Bisseuil—three premier cru villages rooted in clay-limestone soils—La Charbauterie is composed of equal parts chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. Fermentation takes place in small oak barrels. The wine sees 24 months sur lattes and is bottled unfiltered, with 3g/L dosage. Notes of white peach and honeysuckle meet marzipan, brioche, and a hint of ripe red cherry. Sprightly acidity, fine bubbles, and chalky minerality throughout the long, precise finish. Not a bottle you need an occasion to open, but will certainly make even the most average of evenings feel like an occasion.