AR Lenoble is celebrating 100 years in 2020. After a century of fierce independence, they are honouring the four generations who have built this unique Champagne house by releasing a minuscule allocation from their back vintage holdings. Less than 400 of these rare, exclusive, and incomparable bottles are available worldwide. We have worked closely with the winery to secure a small but significant allocation of these wines.
The provenance of these centenary bottles is unrivalled. These back vintages were disgorged to order for Langton’s and we have directly imported the Champagnes. Collectors and those looking for unique Champagne experiences should move quickly. Allocations are in the single figures across some vintages.
'We are proud of our 100 year history but it is our independence that makes AR Lenoble. We simply could not make these Champagnes our way if we had to answer to anyone but ourselves. We make wines with personality.'
- Christian Holthausen
Each vintage is presented in a wooden box, colour coded to honour the four generations of AR Lenoble.
Red Box - 1959, 1982 Armand-Raphaël The colour of the Alsace regions from which he hailed. Beige Box - 1985, 1986 Joseph The elegant dandy. Yellow Box - 1988, 1990 Jean-Marie A builder and a great hunter. Orange Box - 1996, 2002 Anne & Antoine Inspired by their modernity and energy.
These rare centenary bottlings are all Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs from AR Lenoble’s significant 10ha holding in Chouilly. Individually, they show remarkable freshness and together plot the course through vintages release to the modern era of the winery, pointing to the direction for the future.
Located 150 km east of Paris, Champagne is the French wine region renowned for producing the finest, most rich and complex sparkling wines in the world. The elegance, longevity and racy acidity of these wines are attributed to the influence of the chalky soils of the region and the cool, marginal continental climate. The region spans an area of 35,000 ha and has 4 main growing areas, each favouring one of the three noble Champagne varieties; Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Champagne has a vineyard quality hierarchy based on the soils, aspect and overall quality of the grapes. Like Burgundy, these quality designations are allocated to the vineyards of the village. Of the 319 villages of Champagne, 17 have Grand Cru status and 44 villages are designated Premier Cru. All Champagne is produced by Traditional Method. The vast majority of Champagne is a blend of the three varieties and may also be a blend of several vintages producing the popular Non Vintage (NV) house styles. Top quality blends from exceptional years are sold as Vintage (Millésime) Champagne.
