Champagne Bonnaire Terres des Buissons Cramant Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut 2016 is a single-parcel Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs village of Cramant, made in a dry, chalk-driven style with very little dosage. Bonnaire draws it from one lieu-dit facing the Mont Aimé side of the hill, on deep chalky soil, and the wine tastes like it: taut, saline and quietly powerful.

The nose opens on ripe white peach and yellow apple, with lemon curd, toasted almond and a faint pastry note that grows with air. Cramant's chalk sits underneath the fruit rather than over it, giving a cool, almost seashell edge. Extra Brut dosage leaves the palate bare in the best sense, so the acidity runs straight through the middle and the texture comes from time on lees rather than sugar. The mousse is fine and persistent, the mid-palate broader than you expect from a wine this dry, and the finish long, dry and mouth-watering with a savoury, saline pull.

Drink it with Sydney rock oysters, sashimi, tempura prawns, or roast chicken with a lemon and butter pan sauce. It also handles hard cheese and salted almonds well as a pre-dinner pour. 2016 was a testing season in Champagne, with frost, hail and disease pressure cutting yields sharply, and the surviving fruit here has the concentration to reward patience. Drinking well from now through to around 2032.