This world of dew
is only a world of dew
and yet… and yet…
- Kobayashi Issa
A glass of Champagne is never the same glass twice.
A vintage holds a year intact. A glass holds an evening you will not get back. What you taste at the start is not what you find an hour later.
The wine is moving. So are you.
Most of us miss it.
I have two kids. One leaving soon. One still figuring out who she is. Both changing faster than I can take in. I keep catching myself half present. The thing I will want back later is right in front of me.
Champagne has been teaching me something about this. About what becomes available when you stay.
The Quiet Detail
Ichi-go ichi-e. One time, one meeting.
From the Japanese tea ceremony. Each gathering, each pour, unrepeatable. Not because something ends. Because everything is always slightly different. The water temperature. The hour. The version of you holding the bowl.
Champagne arrives at the same truth through a different door. A wine opened tonight is not the wine opened tomorrow. Neither are you.
Not a lament. An instruction.
Bottle of the Week
Pierre Gimonnet & Fils - Fleuron Blanc de Blancs 2019
Structure
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Dosage: 5 g/L
Vinification: 100% stainless steel, malolactic fermentation
Origin: Cramant Grand Cru (58%), Chouilly Grand Cru (27%), and Cuis 1er Cru (15%)
Aged 78+ months on the lees
In Issue #1, the 1996 Fleuron. Lemon, chalk, something saline that sharpened with every sip. A warmth underneath, like Japanese sweet potato. Quietly earthy. Unexpected.
That bottle changed how I listened.
This is a different vintage. The same house. A reason to return.
2019 was warm, but the wine stays composed. Citrus, chalk, and a quiet line of salt running through it. Not overt, just a hint of the sea.
Give it time. Twenty minutes. An hour. It opens without losing shape. Not bigger. Just clearer.
That distinction matters more than any score.
What to Notice
The first pour is the question. The second is the beginning of an answer.
Do not rush to a verdict. The wine is not withholding. It is waiting to see if you are.
Where to Find It
K&L Wine Merchants — $79.99
Woodland Hills Wine Company — $62.95 (pre-arrival, September 2026)
Wine.com · Wine-Searcher.com for additional availability.
A Short Detour
The gongfu tea ceremony works the same way. Short steeps. Each one different. The leaves open a little more. The water cools. You change too, slightly, between pours.
The ritual is not decoration. It is what makes the tea possible.
Presence is not a mood. It is a method.
We are almost never fully where we are. A meal half noticed. A bottle of something extraordinary, opened with people you love, mind already somewhere else.
Ichi-go ichi-e does not promise it comes easily. Just that this moment, this wine, this company, this evening, is singular. It will not be offered again. The bottle you open tomorrow is a different wine. The version of you who opens it is a different person.
When to drink a wine is not a question about the wine's readiness. It is a question about yours.
There is more to find when you make space for it. First the wine. Then, if you stay, yourself.
What I’m Curious About Next
Gimonnet has farmed the same plots in Cuis for generations. What does it mean to tend the same ground across a lifetime, and what does that continuity taste like?
Next issue: roots, and what stays in one place.
A Small Dose
This world of dew
is only a world of dew
and yet… and yet…
- Kobayashi Issa
Until the next bottle,
Manj
If you enjoy this, I also share short Champagne notes on Instagram:
@le_dosage