WARNING

Three vintages. One grand cru. Boxed together for $240.

Jean Pernet farms in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, in the heart of the Côte des Blancs, and these are blanc de blancs in the strict sense: all chardonnay, all grand cru fruit, all from a single declared vintage. We have the 2009, the 2012, and the 2013, and we are boxing one of each.

A vertical is the only way to taste what a vintage actually does. Same village, same grapes, same hands. What changes is the year and the time in bottle, and with Champagne that difference is not subtle. Open them side by side and the 2009, the warmest and most generous of the three, will not taste like the 2013, which came from a long cool season and kept its edge. The 2012 sits between them and is the vintage most people who follow Champagne got excited about.

You can drink them in one evening with four people and a plate of something salty, or you can put them down and open one a year. Both are correct.

The specifics

• Three 750ml bottles: one each of 2009, 2012 and 2013
• Jean Pernet Millésime Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger
• $240 boxed, against $285.97 at full retail
• Only three verticals exist. 
• Pickup only, at your choice of four November dates

This is the kind of gift that ends a conversation. It is also the kind of thing that does not come around again, since we are not restocking a cellar we are closing.