Champagne Blanc de Blancs is a Champagne AOC sparkling wine made with 100% Chardonnay in the Champagne region of France.

Origins: Tom Stevenson (2011) says that ‘though blanc de noirs and blanc de blancs were produced [in the] 19th century neither term was in common use, and the wines were sold simply as Champagne. They were not even made as a deliberate style but occurred through the happenstance of some growers who cultivated only one grape variety…The first internationally recognised producer of blanc de blancs is generally thought to be Salon, in the 1920s, but Salon did not use the term on its label until the early 1980s, which was well after blanc de blancs Champagne came into vogue…the first use of blanc de blancs on a Champagne label I have seen is the Taittinger Blanc de Blancs 1943, which was made famous by Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale (1953), the first of his James Bond novels. When James Bond considers ordering Taittinger 1945, the sommelier recommends Taitinger Blanc de Blancs 1943, which Bond approves, remarking that it is “probably the finest Champagne in the world.” Exactly ten years later, Taittinger also featured in the second Bond film, From Russia with Love, though Fleming did not mention Taittinger at all in that book. By the time the author died in 1964, his 14 Bond novels had sold more than 40 million copies, and blanc de blancs Champagne was on the rise. The true precursor to the modern trend for blanc de blancs was thus Bond, not Salon.’

Bibliography

Tom Stevenson (2011), ‘Blanc de Noirs, All Black-The New White’, World of Fine Wine 34 2011 p.168-175.