This is Heucq’s most classic Champagne, a blend of three grapes (40% Chardonnay, 30% Meunier, 30% Pinot Noir) from two vintages (2019 and 2020 here). For most growers this would be a “calling card” of a wine, made in large enough quantities to really get it out in the world, and give even casual drinkers a chance to get to know the family. 

Not chez Heucq. The family doesn’t even make 700 cases of this beauty – and it certainly isn’t a wine they make especially for casual drinkers. It’s rich with the green clay terroir of illite. The fermentation is done in a mix of barrel (30%) and steel, which gives the fruit a chance to expand without compromising the precision or marking the wine with oak. They aged it on its lees for about 5 years (five times the requirement!). 

They use just a tiny hint of dosage, somewhere between 1 and 2 grams per liter (we called to ask and the answers were not, shall we say, scientific). That’s way too little to be able to taste directly, but it has an effect on the wine, bringing both fruit and minerality out, and marrying elements – much as salt can help to bring a dish together even at levels that don’t taste “salty.” Most of their bottlings are brut nature, which tells us this is a highly intentional choice. And it shows us that this is not a family that works from a recipe, but one that works towards its goal of presenting its terroir. 

It is, as you would expect from everything that goes into it, a complex wine, and you shouldn’t serve it too cold (even cellar temperature it is delicious). The nose changes with air: fruit, stone and bread of course, but also with time hints of spice and herbal tea. On the palate it has the sort of fresh, pretty fruit profile at first that makes it a lovely aperitif. But with air it shows more body, acidity and that savory minerality which make it a treat with food. Cheese or nuts or potato chips before dinner; white meat with dinner; and on its own after dinner if you have any left. 

This is the more experimental wine. While the Assemblage can take advantage of the blending to create complexity in the old fashioned Champagne way, this wine is 100% Meunier from a single vintage. The wine is also made without any dosage and with “only” two years on the lees (compared to the Assemblage’s five). That shorter aging period keeps the wine incredibly fresh and expressive. And with no dosage, there’s absolutely nothing to cover up the intense, youthful character.  

Even the name announces its ambitions: the wine is named for the egg-shaped concrete vessel in which the wine ferments (“oeuf” is French for “egg”). That’s not traditional in Champagne, but there’s logic behind the experimentation and it fits with everything else. Concrete is a neutral material, and using it preserves the fruit and terroir elements. And the oval shape doesn’t just look dramatic – it is also said to have the practical effect of keeping the fine lees and liquids in gentle circulation, building texture without any mechanical stirring required.

This approach is all about preserving what nature gives and, there is indeed a ton worth preserving here. It couldn’t work without incredible fruit, but the amazing farming of the 30-year-old vines develops incredible Meunier fruit and intense green clay (illite) savory minerality. While the wine sounds experimental – while it may be experimental – it is still very much a natural outgrowth of the Heucq family’s long-standing practices and a perfect formula for their terroir.

The final wine, like the Assemblage, is wonderfully complex and changes with air and time. The nose starts with brioche, flowers and citrus, but with air shows more apple or even baked pear, as well as spices like cardamom or aniseed and an iodine minerality. The palate is equally complex, with the minerality a little more central. 

It works with all the same foods as the Assemblage, but with the intense mineral and bright fruit, it’s also a natural for ceviche, tartare, or other fresh or raw seafood and shellfish dishes.