Laherte Frères Les Empreintes Extra Brut 2018

Laherte Frères Les Empreintes Extra Brut 2018 is a vintage Champagne built from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sourced from selected parcels, with low dosage used to keep the wine’s shape precise and exposed. It fits naturally into Laherte Frères’ parcel-conscious philosophy: rather than asking one broad blend to represent the entire estate, the domaine repeatedly narrows its focus by grape, site and cellar approach. The family is based in Chavot-Courcourt, south of Épernay, and traces its winegrowing history to 1889. Across roughly 75 parcels, Laherte Frères works with the three principal Champagne varieties as well as less common permitted grapes in selected cuvées. The range is organised to make those differences visible, moving from the broader Ultradition wines towards increasingly specific varietal and terroir expressions. Wood is an important part of the house style. The producer states that around 80% of the domaine’s wines are fermented and aged in wood, using a large collection of barrels alongside foudres and other larger vessels. That does not mean every bottle follows one recipe; rather, parcel vinification, massal selection, immediate pressing and generally low dosage are recurring tools used according to the wine. Les Empreintes 2018 gives a concise expression of that approach. Citrus and apple sit among the wine’s fresh markers, with the selected-parcel blend bringing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir together in an Extra Brut frame. The emphasis is on definition rather than sweetness, making the wine particularly useful for drinkers who already know Laherte Frères through Ultradition and want to move towards a more focused vintage expression. For buyers, this is a natural step between the estate’s broad house wines and its most site-specific Cœurs de Terroir bottlings. It retains the recognisable Laherte commitment to parcel detail while presenting the 2018 harvest through two classic Champagne grapes and a deliberately restrained dosage.