The Bonnaire Cramant Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut 2013 is a taut, chalk-driven Chardonnay champagne grown on the Grand Cru slopes of Cramant on the Côte des Blancs. Low dosage keeps it lean and savoury, with the extra years on lees showing as depth rather than sweetness.

Lemon curd, green apple and white blossom lead, with a nutty, brioche-like weight underneath that only bottle age brings. Air draws out crushed oyster shell, dried hay and a faint hazelnut note. Cramant fruit gives the 2013 a fine, persistent bead and a texture that is creamy across the middle without losing its edge. The 2013 season in Champagne was cool and drawn out, with picking pushed well into October, and that late ripening shows here as a firm acid spine and a long, dry, mineral close where the Extra Brut finishing leaves nothing to hide behind.

Serve it with freshly shucked oysters, sashimi, a plate of prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella, or roast chicken with lemon and thyme. It also handles a well-made cheese soufflé better than most sparkling wine. Drinking beautifully from now through to about 2032, with the structure to keep developing toasted, honeyed complexity if you have the patience. Bonnaire has been based in Cramant since 1932, and this vintage rewards a proper white wine glass rather than a flute.