Need help with Champagne purchase

Hello everyone,

I need to buy a bottle of champagne, and have it by tomorrow, so it must be a local purchase. Criteria are: (1) Brut, and (2) preference for the yeast/bread/dough profile. Which of these do you think would fit the bill best?

Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque, 2006
Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame
Bollinger Special Edition Rose, 2006
Pommery Cuvee Louise
Champagne Ayala Brut Blanc de Blancs 2007
Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé
Taittinger Les Folies de la Marquetterie Brut
Taittinger Prélude Grands Crus Brut

If no vintage is listed, I assume it’s NV.

Thanks for the help!

The first three are not doughy/yeasty stylistically for my palate and neither is Taittinger. I’m drawing a blank on the others.

You can’t get Dom? That’s “yeasty” to me and pretty broadly available.

I tend to pick up a nice breadishness (not sure if that is an actual word) with the Billecart Rose. In addition, it is really good juice.

I can, but the price locally is above my threshhold.

Nice, I read a couple reviews on CT that said that, but then a bunch that didn’t. So I wasn’t sure.

In the grand beskerker tradition of going outside the list, can you find Pol Roger locally? That’s what comes to mind first for me, and it shouldn’t be more than the ones on your list

Well, good question! I’ll see if I can find it. My one source has Winston Churchill, but that one is a bit pricey!

FYI, it’s a gift and am looking to spend right about $100 because that is what I was given. I have a 20% off coupon at one store, which is why a few of those are on the list.

I’ve always thought of Bollinger as bready/yeasty

You should be able to find the vintage Pol Roger Brut for well within your budget, and it is a delicious bottle (with some label appeal, which is nice for a gift)

+1

Pommery Cuvée Louise should have a vintage, if it is not sub 2002 I’d stay away.

That said I’ll follow the treadition: Bruno Paillard 200x would fit the bill.

Taittinger’s Folies is pretty toasty and bready and a good step above their entry-level range. Bollinger’s style is inherently muscular and toasty, always. The more you pay, the more toast, bread dough and roasted nuts you get.

And I never would take a young Dom Perignon. It is quite toasty, but most of all it is pretty darn reductive: for the first handful of years the wine is really smoky with very overwhelming gunpowder smoke note that dissipates with air, but usually slower than the bubbles. I find DP interesting only when the overtly reductive character disappears, and it can take up to a decade of cellaring in some vintages. Those few times I’ve drunk DP very soon after its release, it has been a disappointment for its price.

I’ll have to hunt for a Taittingner I guess ( never had one)

Cool! You get to have your first time! If you can find one and afford it, a 1995 or 1996 (or the 2002 or 2006) Comtes would be a heavenly (and expensive) introduction but their NV wines are really good too. They have lots of personality

Based on what I consider yeasty, bready, doughy - I would go with the Ayala 2007 BdB.

Thanks all, time to head to the store. I’ll check back

Sorry for the Necrobump, but I get oxidative/bruised as the dominant characteristic of Bollinger; both vintage and NV.

+total agreement… love that '07 Ayala

(Well if Chris can be late to the party, so can me)

I went there with an eye on the '07 Ayala but they were out, so I got the Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé. It was a gift from some friends to my wife, so hopefully she shares it with me!