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By: Miles Philippe | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/22/2023 | Send Email
The quality that this entry level champagne exhibits is stunning! The golden fruit notes are laced with a wonderful saline quality, and the minerality is accompanied by a savory-ness that adds a rich layer of complexity. The finish is long, and the lusciousness of the whole thing lingers with you.
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By: Philip Roufail | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/18/2023 | Send Email
The one man sparkling show that is Alexandre Le Brun is our smallest, yet highly accomplished, grower-producers and his excellent NV "Tradition" is back in stock for the first time since early spring. A traditional blend of equal parts Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier, just from the nose you know you're in for a treat. It busts with fresh dough (3 years on the lees!), citrus, grapefruit, hazelnuts, and McIntosh apples. On the palate, it has the elegant and luxurious texture you can only get from fine champagne, layers of delicious baked apples, dried stone fruit, lemon-lime, vanilla, baking spices, and popping acidity. On its lengthy dry finish, you are rewarded with taut minerality and a final rich sweet note! A must try for anyone who loves distinctive grower-producer champagne.
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By: Alex Schroeder | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/15/2023 | Send Email
This is one of the smallest-production Champagnes in our portfolio. Made from 1/3 each of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, it offers a delicacy and precision you usually pay much more for. The fruit profile is complex with apricots, lemons, mandarins and starfruit with toasty lees and delicate spice from the extended barrel aging. A gem of a value like this can only be found via the K&L Direct Import program.
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By: Scott Beckerley | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/15/2023 | Send Email
Alexandre Le Brun, a 9th generation winemaker, has created another gem of a bubbly. Due to its low dosage, minerals jump out of the glass on the nose. Newest release shows a touch of butter, stone fruits, apricot and oak spice. Main flavors are golden apple and roasted nuts, with light savory spice. Wonderfully delicious! On the palate, it comes across more fully with rich yellow fruits and bright red cherries. The fullness of the palate is balanced very well by the long finish, which has lingering acidity and minerality. We are always excited when Alex has a new release for us!
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By: Gary Westby | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/15/2023 | Send Email
The hands on crafting of this one-man-show Champagne producer comes through beautifully in this fantastic value bottle. This is composed of a third each Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier from Mr. Le Brun’s estate, and nearly every wine in this blend has gone through malolactic. This Champagne has a rich bready nose from the over 36 months it has aged on the lees and some very nice savory qualities as well. In the mouth the high quality Meunier gives this wine great roundness as well as some tasty baked apple flavors. The cool climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir show their stuff on the dry, long finish. It is dosed at 6g/l.
Top Value!
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By: Mandana Tourani | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 9/6/2020 | Send Email
Creamy, toasty, super bright with a hint of honey and brioche.
Fun and funky in a good Champagne way.
It is beautiful, complex and layered with such harmony in flavors and balance. It will be the perfect addition to your celebration or just a delightful addition to any occasion.
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By: Dulcinea Gonzalez | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/28/2020 | Send Email
Decadence on a budget! Here's a delightfully rich Champagne with an aroma of a freshly baked baguette, lemons and herbs. It's taste is plush and broad at one end and then fresh and lemony, grapefruity at the other leaving a well balanced round finish. This would be a top pick for an indulgent Champagne breakfast or a simple brunch time toast! Santé.
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By: Jeffrey Jones | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/27/2020 | Send Email
A great Champagne from a small producer. The Le Brun Tradition is full-bodied and round, with a subtle richness. There is a hint of toast and this Champagne is very dry. Great alone, it will also go well with chicken or pork. A small scale hands on producer that is well worth the price.
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By: Neal Fischer | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/26/2020 | Send Email
Everyone on staff here at K&L loves Le Brun Champagnes, but this is one of my all time favorites! This sparkler is incredibly aromatic with sour lemon, fresh cream, and solid minerality. What puts it over the top for me are the scents of brightly blooming wild flowers. The palate begins gently with lemon curd dessert before reaching a vibrant acidity, then ending with a grapefruit pith finish. Outstanding.
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By: Muriel Sarik | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/25/2020 | Send Email
This is a champagne I buy for me. It's made of 1/3 each of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier each giving their own special character of baked apples on the pallet, bread and/yeast aromas on the nose and savory notes on all of it. This blend is a perfect recipe that I want over and over.
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By: Elsa Baez | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/13/2019 | Send Email
Savory, big and rich are three words I'd use to describe this fantastic champagne. On the noes you get red fruits and apples while on the palage there are bright red fruit and apples, brioche and a long, dry finish. Love bringing this bottle to parties!
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By: Chris DePaoli | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/10/2019 | Send Email
This is a great bottling of Champagne that is a go-to for a mixed group. It's big and rich enough to hold up to food and pretty enough to drink alone. The perfect split of one third each Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier offers a cool comparative option for people exploring champagne styles and the price point we secure by bringing in this producer ourselves allows it to outperform all expectation.
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By: Jackson Lee | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/7/2019 | Send Email
Once upon a time this was one of my personal staff picks and I loved drinking it as much as I loved recommending it. There's so many great things to say about this producer and his wines aside from the fact that his average vine age is over 40 years old and he keeps his favorite fruit to produce under his own name. With equal parts Chardonnay, Munier, and Pinot Noir, I got notes of sweet meyer lemon peel and honeyed bisquits on the nose. The palate tasted of freshly harvested peach blossom honey, a very slight airy bisquit and more white flowers. Three years on the lees did this wine well and added to the flavors on the finish.
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By: Andrew Tobin | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/7/2019 | Send Email
Alexandre Le Brun grows some spectacular fruit, and something around 70% goes to Bollinger, and keeps the best for himself. The vines are averaging 40 years of age now, maturing beautifully and producing amazing fruit. The Tradition is rich and toasty on the nose, with notes of pastry cream, almond, and sweet nut butter. the palate though comes through with wonderful acidity, tart apple, and under-ripe berries. This is a classic and elegant champagne that is as perfect for celebration as it is for winding down and relaxing at the end of an evening.
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By: Jeff Garneau | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 12/31/2015 | Send Email
From one of our newest grower-producers. On the drier side, but with remarkable richness and weight. A light toast complemented by ripe pear and apple notes and a hint of cinnamon spice. A terrific introduction to the wines of this exciting young winemaker.
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By: Andrew Stevens | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 12/29/2015 | Send Email
This is a fantastic tradition to get into for those seeking a richer more decadent Champagne. Alexandre gives big name Champagne houses a run for their money at a fraction of the cost. Wonderful bread aromas on the nose and a serious baked fruit middle with hints of spice. Grab one for celebrations or for food and let it impress you as much as it has impressed us.
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By: Mike Parres | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/8/2015 | Send Email
It is medium-bodied Champagne that seems effortless and is very well integrated. This makes a great aperitif, but like many other Champagnes will also make a great partner with sushi.
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By: Dave Genevro | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/3/2015 | Send Email
Great texture, very expressive fruit and a touch of acids. Well-rounded and full of life, this wine is based on a very lovely vintage of grapes from Champagne, the 2011 vintage. I love this wine too because of it's lower sugars at the dosage stage of production. It's a plus that this wine also spent more time on the lees, up to five months more or so. I love the toasty structure and character this brings to the wine. For a special occasion, friends and family, this is a great bottle of Champagne to enjoy for years to come!
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By: Joe Manekin | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 4/1/2015 | Send Email
A finely balanced Champagne, this is all Challah dough on the nose, which leads to a dry, elegant, tasty palate. We like to joke about the recent trendiness of the Aube, or Cotes des Bar, the warmer, southern zone that is closer to Chablis than to Epernay and the rest of Champagne. That said, wines as good as Le Brun's provide serious competition to the established names up north!
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By: Christie Brunick | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 3/20/2015 | Send Email
A new Direct Import for us and I'm in love! This is the perfect Champagne to start out the night with! Although dry, it has a ripeness to the fruit that makes it a great aperitif or sipping Champagne on its own. This will be great for anyone that wants to dive right into our grower Champagne program and see what it has to offer! Great Champagnes for less than you'll find anywhere!
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By: Kyle Kurani | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 3/4/2015 | Send Email
Alex Le Brun is one of our newest and most exciting producers we are lucky enough to import here at K&L. Getting to know the style of a new producer means some painstaking, grueling work, having to taste Champagne is pretty tough after all. It was a joy to discover his wines, made in a style that is serious, but not fussy, and absolutely delicious. The Tradition is a joy, toasty on the nose, baked core fruit, with intriguing spice. Bubbly and fresh on the palate with a pleasantly round mouth feel and texture, ending up lengthy and clean.
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