50% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir, 10% Pinot Meunier. This wine has an intense earthiness intermingled with pear and citrus fruit notes. Pierre Rovani [Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, Dec 2005] 92 points, Outstanding "The rich, toasty aromas of de Sousa's non-vintage Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Reserve (23.02.2005) lead to a yeasty medium to full-bodied personality of impressive weight and concentration. A deep, spicy Champagne armed with impressive depth of fruit, it regales the palate with peppery pears, toasty spices, and yeast dusted apples."

Serious wines these. Serious wines produced in exciting times for Champagne. Times when a handful of small, high quality grower producers are challenging the hegemony of the large Champagne brands by encouraging drinkers to judge their Champagne as a wine first and a Champagne second. These renegades crop low and vinify naturally minimizing dosage and shunning fining or filtration. They produce wines of genuine richness and depth (vinosity you sometimes hear). Wines that taste of fruit, not of simple oxidation, lees, and dosage. Wines with persistent length rather than a faint, sweetish finish. Wines that go with food (and not just finger food). Wines that taste of the place they were grown; not "Champagne" (a vast, diverse area) but rather of the local area, the village or the vineyard. In a region that has based its marketing on the "blenders art" and the "house style" this is quite a revolution.