The Latest and Greatest from Champagne - Part One

I'm working on a book on Champagne and believe me, I can't really call this work! (Well, the writing part is work, I'll give you that.) Not when your research is tasting Champagne, whether in France or even at home. I toured the Champagne region in late June and was able to visit about a dozen producers and taste wines from a few others when I visited VinExpo in Bordeaux. Since I've been back, I've been tasting a lot of Champagne and have a lot more to enjoy (note: I'm not calling this sampling, as I won't sample a Champagne - I'll drink it all, along with whoever is with me at the time).

So to get caught up, here is an overview of the best Champagnes I have tasted over the past three or four months, broken down into a few categories. I have plenty now and I'll do this again in a few months, after I get through another 40 or 50 Champagnes.

Best Non-Vintage Bruts

While some think of this category in modest terms, I enjoy these wines and tasted several that were a notch or two above most of their competition. These included Bereche, a superb grower firm in Ludes, Palmer and Mailly Grand Cru, two excellent cooperatives, and the super dependable, consistent, Pol Roger, which has been my favorite non-vintage Brut from a famous Champagne house for many years. Finally, the Leclerc-Briant non-vintage Brut Reserve, from a small producer in Epernay, offers great freshness and harmony and best of all, it's made according to biodynamic practices.

Best Blanc de Blancs

So many beautiful wines in this category - here are just a few:

Palmer (non-vintage)

Besserat de Bellefon "Cuvée des Moines" 

Henriot (utterly charming)

Collard-Picard "Cuvée Dom. Picard (single vineyard in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger) 

Michel Gonet (latest release, 2011 base, light touch of minerality) 

Several small houses and growers specialize in Blanc de Blancs; two of these, namely Philippe Gonet and J. L. Vergnon, both located in the famed Côte des Blancs village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, where Chardonnay reigns supreme. From Gonet (who produces as many as seven different Blanc de Blancs cuvées!), standouts included the "Roy Soleil" with its distinct minerality and excellent persistence, and the "Belemnita" 2005, the winery's prestige cuvée, a Blanc de Blancs of outstanding purity and elegance. From a vineyard in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger planted in 1929, this is a gorgeous wine that will drink well for the next 7-10 years.

From J.L. Vergnon, every Blanc de Blancs made by Christophe Constant at this firm that has become a rising star, is noteworthy. The two finest are the 2008 Expression, which has a rich, yet delicate finish with notable finesse, and the 2008 Confidence Brut Nature, meaning zero dosage. 2008 was an exceptional vintage, as the wines have beautiful acidity, and though currently a bit austere, they should age magnificently. This cuvée has appealing aromas of yellow plums and golden raisins, excellent harmony and light minerality; it should peak in 7-10 years.

The 2008 Blanc de Blancs from Deutz and Pol Roger are lovely wines with great varietal purity; the former is a restrained wine with a light minerality and excellent harmony, while the latter is as appealing a Blanc de Blancs as I've had from Pol Roger in years. Offering a light chalky character in the nose, this has beautiful freshness, rich minerality and impressive weight, as this wine coats the palate. The Deutz should peak in 5-7 years, while the Pol Roger should age even better, peaking in 7-10 years. 

Other first-rate vintage Blanc de Blanc de Blancs include those from Bruno Pailard, 2009 Pierre Paillard "Les Motellettes", 2005 Polyez Jacquemart and Thiénot. My favorite cuvées from Bruno Paillard are the Blanc de Blancs, both the Reserve Privée and the 2004 Blanc de Blancs; this last my favorite wine of all his cuvées I tasted with Bruno at VinExpo. Offering excellent persistence, very good acidity and beautiful complexity, this is ideal for most seafood tonight or over the next 3-5 years.

Regarding Thiénot, there are two special Blanc de Blancs produced at this small gem of a Champagne house. The Cuvée Stanislaus 2005 (Stanislaus is the son of Alain Thiénot), has lemon and pear aromas and a touch of yeastiness and is quite dry with lovely complexity, while the Le Vigne aux Gammes Cuvée 3435 is remarkably rich, as it is made from late-harvest grapes from a vineyard in Avize. Some will not like the style, but I love the nutty, yeasty quality of this cuvée that displays a powerful finish and a distinct minerality.

Best Rosé Champagnes

I admit to loving rosé Champagne, actually being almost obsessed with these wines. Maybe it's because they're different, or maybe it's because most examples are primarily Pinot Noir-based, which give these wines a bit more power and richness. 

I was quite pleased with virtually every rosé I tasted on my recent trip; a few examples include the non-vintage offerings from Perrier-Jouet, Henriot, which is quite delicious with excellent freshness, and the Mailly Grand Cru "L'Intemporelle", which has bright fruit and delicate Pinot Noir flavors.

Moving up a notch or two as far as texture and weight, the 2005 Philipponnat "1522" Rosé (named for the year of the firm's founding) is extremely classy with notes of dried pear and sour cherry; there is outstanding persistence with great finesse; this is a beautiful rosé that does not get the attention it deserves. Enjoy now and over the next 5-7 years.

The 2005 Bollinger "La Grande Année" Rosé is stunning, with its exquisite aromas of dried cherry and red plum, excellent concentration and persistence and very good acidity. Perfectly balanced, this is delicious with great purity and varietal character. This should drink well for 7-10 years. How good is this wine? It is the best current cuvée from this house in my opinion, even better than the 2002 R.D. (recently disgorged).

Veuve Clicqout has been making a name for itself with its beautiful rosés for some time; this makes perfect sense, as this is a house where every cuvée is primarily Pinot Noir-based. The 2004 Vintage Brut Rosé is full-bodied and very rich with explosive fruit on the palate and in the finish. While this is quite flavorful and impressive now at 11 years of age, it needs time and will be at its best in another 3-5 years or longer. If you do consume it now, pair it with veal or a game bird.

Two rosés from Paul Bara in Bouzy are notable for their varietal purity and balance. This should come as no surprise as this grower uses Pinot Noir from their own vineyards in this beautiful village in the Montagne de Reims, one known for its rich, ripe Pinot Noir. The Brut Grand Rosé (non-vintage) has appealing raspberry jam and morel cherry flavors and is utterly delicious. Their 2009 Special Club Rosé is also very tasty, with more of a mandarin orange flavor profile. Displaying excellent ripeness, this is quite sleek, with admirable finesse. Offering excellent complexity (there are notes of red spice in the finish) and beautiful balance, this is a lovely wine, to be consumed at dinner (halibut would be an ideal pairing) over the next 3-5 years.

Finally, the rosés from Dom Perignon are simply breathtaking. As much as I've loved Dom Perignon Brut (and the current 2005 release is first-rate), I've always believed that their rosé was a wine of greater complexity. The current release is the 2004 and it is another outstanding example of Dom Perignon Rosé. Offering great depth of beautifully ripe black cherry fruit with excellent persistence and very good acidity, this has magnificent harmony. This has a long, long finish and is extremely satisfying. This offers great pleasure now, but you don't need to be in a hurry to drink this, as it should be in great shape in another 12-15 years.

Even more remarkable is the 1995 Rosé P2 (pictured). The "P" stands for Plenitude, a term that chef-de-cave Richard Geoffroy is using for recently disgorged examples of Dom Perignon (this replaces the term Oenotheque, used for several years). Combining excellent ripeness - 1995 was an outstanding year in Champagne - with a rich mid-palate, very good acidity and a lengthy finish, this has great Pinot Noir purity. The two things that struck me the most about this rosé were its elegance - as rich as this was, the wine offers lovely delicacy and finesse - and its amazing freshness. Here is a twenty year-old rosé that seems more like it is four or five years old. It's a remarkable wine, arguably the most complex, refined and yes, greatest rosé Champagne I've ever tasted. This will offer great satisfaction now and over the next 10-15 years. Stunning!

In my next post on the latest from Champagne, I'll focus on some of the best examples I've recently tasted of Blanc de Noirs, vintage Bruts and of course, prestige cuvées (preview: the 2002 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill is magnificent!) Cheers!

Champagne in Chicago - Magnifique!

Antonie Songy, Champagne Pascal Doquet (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

On Tuesday, October 29, the Comité Champagne (Champagne Bureau) held a tasting in Chicago with 36 Champagne producers pouring three of their finest cuvées for the trade. Well-organized and attended, this was an outstanding tasting that offered great evidence not only of the amazing quality of Champagne but also the marvelous diversity of these products.

As the USA Champagne Bureau noted, this was their first official tasting in Chicago and only the fourth one held in the United States. As I commented to Sam Heitner, director of the Bureau, they need to come back more often! To be able to taste so many superb wines from a mix of famous and lesser-known producers was not only a treat, but also a great educational experience. I can't imagine that the members of the trade that attended this event are not going to come away with a greater appreciation of Champagne; I also have to believe that many of them are also going to purchase several of these wines for their restaurants or retail outlets.

I could write volumes about this event, but for now, I will comment on some of the finest wines I tasted (of course, I didn't taste everything, so I imagine that I missed quite a few other first-rate wines).

Best Blanc de Blancs: Gosset Grand Blanc de Blancs - Hands down, the finest Blanc de Blancs I tasted at this event. One thinks of Blanc de Blancs as a wine of finesse, not power. Yet here was a 100% Chardonnay that was a wine of deep concentration, perfect ripeness and marvelous structure that was among the most full-bodied of the tasting. Lovely now, this will peak in 7-10 years.

Most Distinctive Cuvée: Drappier "Quattuor": This had to be the most distinctive wine at the tasting, if only for the blend of grapes in this wine, 25% each of four white varieties (yes, you read that correctly, four white varieties): Chardonnay, Petit Meslier, Blanc Vrai (Pinot Blanc) and Arbane. (Please read my recent post about varieties in Champagne; while most people believe there are only three approved varieties for Champagne, there are actually seven). 

This "Quattor" is a Blanc de Blancs - interestingly enough, a Blanc de Blancs that is not 100% Chardonnay; believe me, there are not many others! Offering powerful yeasty aromas as well as notes of apple, pear and honey, this is a rich, very complex wine with excellent persistence and beautiful acidity. This will be at its best in 5-7 years; I imagine this would be especially wonderful with lighter game or many veal preparations.

Best Non-Vintage: Pol Roger "White Label", Bollinger "Special Cuvée" and Lamiable Brut Grand Cru:  Like a treasured friend, the Pol Roger "White Label" is something you can count on again and again; the richness and impeccable balance of this wine are striking. Offering tons of flavor, perfect harmony and beautiful finesse, the "Special Cuvée" from Bollinger is underrated, as everyone looks to their more expensive wines, but this is first-rate, with outstanding depth of fruit. The Lamiable offers dried pear and tropical fruit along with a nice plummy character (this is 80% Pinot Noir). It also has a lovely mineral character in the finish. 

Let's Hear it for the Côte des Bars! - While many of the most famous Champagne producers are from the celebrated zones of the Montagne de Reims or the Côte des Blancs, let's not forget that there are some marvelous Champagnes being produced in the Côte des Bars - aka, the Aube - the most southern of the growing zones in Champagnes. The soils are quite different here, often resulting in expressive wines with a distinct earthiness. At this tasting, the wines of Devaux from this zone were quite notable and definitely among the most harmonious that I experienced. In particular the firm's Millésime "D" 2005 was one of the most memorable of the afternoon. A 50/50 Chardonnay/Pinot Noir blend that spent seven years on its own yeasts, this has a long, long finish that displays great persistence and distinct minerality. This producer should be better known; given the quality here, perhaps the Côte des Bars should be given more consideration by Champagne lovers.

Best Rosés: Duval-Leroy "Prestige" Premier Cru; Pascal Doquet, Premier Cru; Pierre Paillard "Les Maillerettes"and Lamiable Grand Cru: I love Rosé Champagne so much (what's not to like?), so I'm like a kid in a candy store when there are so many excellent versions of Rosé offered at an event such as this one. Each of these wines has power, ideal ripeness and excellent persistence. While the styles differ - expressive minerality in the Paillard, great depth of fruit in the Duval- Leroy, distinctive flavors in the Doquet and a strong plummy character in the Lamiable, these are all first-rate examples of Rosé Champagne (note: the rosés from Thénoit, Taittinger (Prestige Rosé) and Louis Roderer (2008) were also quite lovely).

Best "Great" Producer that is relatively unknown: I do my best to stay current on the finest houses and growers of Champagne but of course, as there are so many producers, there are always going to be some I don't hear of or have the opportunity to taste their wines. Yet even with all that, I'm amazed that I'd never had the wines of Pierre Paillard from the town of Bouzy, home to some of the finest Pinot Noir vineyards in all of Champagne. Each of the three wines of Paillard poured at this tasting - the Bouzy Grand Cru, the Bouzy Grand Cru 2004 and the Rosé "Les Maillerettes" (mentioned above) are all from Grand Cru vineyards. These wines certainly have the power and complexity you would expect given their notable origins, but these cuvées exceed their distinguished breeding, as they display distinct minerality and are exceptional evidence that terroir can exist in Champagne, a notion often dispelled by many observers. This is an outstanding producer!

Arthur Silvente, Duval-Leroy (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Best Wines: Duval-Leroy "Femme de Champagne" 2000; Phillipponat "Grand Blanc" 2004; Nicolas Feuillatte "Palmes d'Or" 2002 - Again, there were dozens of first-rate wines at this event; however, there were three that stood a level above the rest.

The "Palmes d'Or" from Feuillatte is all about power; while this wine needs a lot of time to display its best, it is already a remarkable offering from the finest vintage of the decade in Champagne. The "Grand Blanc" from Phillipponat is a stellar wine, truly one of the finest Champagnes I have ever tasted. Powerful with outstanding complexity and persistence, this is what a great Champagne is all about and it is certainly one that you recall even days after you taste it.

Finally there is the sheer perfection of the Duval-Leroy "Femme", the firm's tête-de-cuvée. The 2000, a blend of 95% Chardonnay and 5% Pinot Noir, was vinified in oak, which gives the wine an added richness on the mid-palate; combined with the tremendous depth of fruit, this results in a flawless wine, one of exceptional power and elegance at the same time; this is a Champagne that is simply unforgettable. Duval-Leroy has become one of my go-to houses for great Champagne; this is certainly one of the finest wine producers in the world.

A big thank you to the Comité Champagne for their skill and hard work in organizing this tasting. Also thanks to the producers that participated and shared their wines and knowledge and finally, thank you also to my friends who attended this event and shared their preferences - many of you alerted me to some great wines I would have otherwise not have tasted. I can't wait until the next Champagne tasting in Chicago - unless I make it to Champagne first!

Classy Sparkling Wines

Just in time for the end of one year and the beginning of another, here are some thoughts on a few of the sparkling wines that have greatly impressed me over the past months. While there are beautiful examples from many locales, I’m going to discuss only two types in this post: Franciacorta and Champagne.

While everyone knows Champagne, not that many people are familiar with Franciacorta. Produced from vineyards in Italy’s Lombardia region, this sparkler (bollicine in Italian) is produced in the same method as Champagne (known as the classic method), where the secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle and the wine spends several years on its own yeasts. This is a time-consuming and costly procedure, but it clearly is the finest approach to producing the most flavorful and complex sparkling wines.

Franciacorta wines are also quite special as only three grapes are used: Chardonnay and Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir) that are also used in the production of Champagne, along with Pinot Bianco (Pinot Meunier, a red grape, is used in Champagne). These varieties are used as they are cool climate varieties that have excellent natural acidity, a necessary component of a balanced and vibrant sparkling wine.

Franciacorta
While I don’t have access to as many of the top Franciacorta estates here in America as I would like, I do get to taste the offerings of two of the finest producers: Bellavista and Ca’ del Bosco. The wines of Bellavista are quite subdued and graceful; the 2004 Gran Cuvée Rosé Brut ($76), a blend of roughly equal parts Chardonnay and Pinot Nero, is a beautiful statement of this style. Medium-full with aromatics of strawberry, pear and dried cherry, this is quite delicious with excellent complexity and a long, satisfying finish. I know that some wine drinkers don’t like too sharp or acidic a finish; if you are in that school, you will love the elegance of this wine, which pairs with a wide variety of foods, from seafood to lighter meats (I tried this with monkfish is mushroom sauce and it was a great match!).


The 2001 Annamaria Clementi bottling from Ca’ del Bosco ($100) is a very different style of sparkling wine and is certainly one of the finest I’ve ever tasted from Italy. Full-bodied with outstanding concentration, this has intense aromas of golden apples, biscuit and dried pear that are backed by a long finish with excellent acidity. This is a powerful Franciacorta with amazing complexity and richness; qualitywise, I could stack this up against a lot of Champagnes that are priced $20-30 higher. This is gorgeous now, but given the concentration and balance of this wine, I expect this to drink well for another 3-5 years. Pair this with shrimp, crab or lobster or even veal or roast chicken or pork.



Champagne
I’ve tasted so many impressive Champagnes lately, so I’ll need to be brief with my descriptions. Pol Roger has a no-dosage cuvée called “Pure” ($60, non-vintage) that is as nicely balanced as any of this style that I’ve tasted. I normally am not a fan of no dosage (or natural) Champagnes, as they seem to lack richness in the finish, but not this one; this is very flavorful and has classic Champagne structure. I loved this with simple take-out Chinese food (hey, we’re all watching our pocketbook, aren’t we?), but this also works beautifully with white meats and lighter game.

The Bollinger Special Cuvée ($70, non-vintage) is a Champagne I hadn’t tasted in years, so I was delighted to become accustomed to its charms again. Quite rich on the palate, this is a powerful, very dry Champagne that I can best describe as being old-fashioned (in the best sense of that term). This is Champagne as I love it; interestingly this is vinified in used oak barrels inseatd of stainless steel as with most Champagnes. Pair this with a variety of foods ranging from flavorful fresh water fish (trout) or Asian cuisine.

I’m also a big fan of Rosé Champagnes, especially as I find myself pairing this style of sparkling wine more often with food. The house of Nicolas Feuillatte is a Rosé specialist and while the luxury offering known as Palmes d’Or (in a stunning bottle) is one of the most amazing bottlings from anywhere in Champagne, this is an extremely limited find. Go with the more widely available non-vintage Rosé ($50), which is a superb value. This has a beautiful bright strawberry color with lovely strawberry and currant aromas, deep concentration and a long finish. This is one of my textbook examples of what a Rosé Champange is all about.

Finally, the non-vintage Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé Brut ($100) is, in a word, classy! This is an elegantly styled Rosé that is delicious with so many types of food, from oysters to suckling pig (see previous post). Copper-pink in color, this is all about fresh raspberries and cherries and while this is rich enough to stand up to just about any food, the key descriptor here is finesse. This combination of power and elegance makes this wine – as well as the finest sparkling wines – a great choice for a meal at this festive time of the year – or any time!