I wanted to make the title longer but I ran out of space! We’re thrilled to announce that we are moving ahead with our first Zoom Champagne tasting, joined by Brad Baker and featuring Cedric Mousse of Champagne Mousse Fils.
Many of you that follow Champagne know Brad from his posts, often bringing the clarity many of us want and need around the Champagne topic. His perspective on Champagne and deep experience will be a valuable addition to this event.
Joining Brad will be Cedric Mousse, whose champagne I have become a fan of prior to my visit to the winery back in 2018, but moreso since through enjoying his wines and getting to know him better via Instagram. Anchored mainly in Pinot Meunier, his wines are pure and show the vitality of his personality that comes through his various cuvees, including now his Special Club bottlings. They bring a unique style, grown in the green clay of Cuisles, which is found nowhere else in the region. Simply, I love them.
Cedric will join us via Zoom from his winery in Cuisles. Finally, I offer a few photos below from my 2018 visit to Champagne Mousse Fils
TO BE PART OF THE EVENT, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING. THANK YOU.
Date/Time: Saturday, April 25th @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM Paris time
Theme: If you own Mousse, open one. Or, bring any bottle of Champagne you like to the event
How To Connect: To get the Zoom link to connect to the event, send a private message to Frank Murray III. I will then send you the link in a private reply. Once you receive the link, please do NOT forward it.
We’ll be muting everyone’s audio so we can eliminate background noise. You’ll also be optioned to turn on your camera if you like…we want to connect and have some fun and fellowship with Brad and Cedric so video is encouraged.
Thanks guys for the PMs. I’ll get the link over to you, later. In the meantime, to enhance the experience and give people a visual sense about Cuisles and the Mousse vineyard, I offer a few more photos to enjoy. PS…click the photos to enlarge them, view them more completely.
We should have room in this event for people to join and so if you have an interest to learn more about Champagne, especially from a talented grower like Cedric, as well as the experience of Brad, please PM me and join the event. These events succeed because you take an investment in attending them. Support us.
Thanks for the additional PMs and interest, everyone should now have their link if they PM’d me for it.
Can we set a goal of 40 for this event? Right now we are just shy of 20, so can we double the attendance here? I’d like to see us have 40 on for our first of this kind doing Champagne, and with a grower like Cedric who is full of life and passion for what he does, and the experience and knowledge of Brad to expand the discussion. I’d like to do more of these, so please support the idea if you have an interest in Champagne and learning more about it.
Ah nice. Interesting bottle there, Buek. We’ll have to ask Cedric about this one, as I have not seen this bottling yet. Perhaps new? If you have a back label shot of it, please post.
I plan to open the Rose Special Club this Saturday. Might as well go big if I am going to drink on Saturday AM at home.
After long deliberation, I’m going to open Champagne L’Extra Or NV, 2019 disgorgement. The thing that finally tipped the scales for me is that it’s the only Cedric Mousse bottling I have.
But maybe after the Zoom I’ll look for others.
Question - normally mousse is pronounced like “moose,” but the name here has an accent over the e. Does that make it a two syllable word like moos-say?
Nice, get to meet Claus this time, and we also get Counselor in on the fun, too.
Below are a few more photos for everyone. The vineyard shot is not from Cuisles, but from Fleury-la-Riviere, which is very close to Cedric’s village of Cuisles. I thought it might give everyone here a good perspective of the land near Cedric, as well as the Marne Valley. Click the photos to expand them, improve the quality.
Hi Time has four different bottlings from this producer:
NV L’Or D’Eugene Blanc de Noirs $45
2014 Special Club $95 (100% pinot meunier)
NV Extra Brut Les Vinges de Mon Village $60
2012 Brut Terres d’Illite Blanc de Noirs $63
This bottling eventually (with a few changes) was replaced by L’Or d’Eugene cuvee and the release David has is the last hurrah for the Noire Reserve. It is probably a 2011 or 2012 base, but I can’t be sure; it could even be a 2010 base. Maybe Cedric can say. I know the late 2014 and early 2015 disgorgements of this shipped to the US were 2010 base and the late 2015 disgorgements of the first L’Or d’Eugene were 2013 based. L’Or d’Eugene sees 1-2 years less lees aging than the Noire Reserve did, but also has the benefit of a perpetual reserve going back to 2003 rather than just reserves from 2-3 years prior to the base vintage.
Back in the day, Cedric had two base NV’s, L’Or Tradition and Noire Reserve; both were similar at around 15-20% Pinot Noir and 80-85% Pinot Meunier, but the Noire Reserve usually had an extra year or so of age on it and a slightly different blend. Eventually, these two wines merged into Noire Reserve for a couple of years (at least in most markets) before the wine got renamed and replaced by the reformulated L’Or d’Eugene and eventually a L’Extra Or for a later disgorged, non-dosage version came out too.
***edited for incorrect spelling - benefit was originally spelled benefite in the last sentence of the first paragraph
