My sweetie and I enjoyed another fabulous dinner at our local fav, the Stonehouse, located at the classy San Ysidro Ranch resort. As per our MO, we take a fine champagne and a Pinot Noir from 1985-1997 made by our now deceased dear friend, Burt Williams. The wines showed extremely well:
2002 BILLECART-SALMON CUVEE NICOLAS FRANCOIS BRUT- first released in 1964 as a tribute to the founder of this house, it is comprised of 60% Pinot Noir from the 1er and Grand Crus from the Montagne de Reims and the Grande Vallée de la Marne and 40% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs; disgorged 1/16; poured in to Sophienwald Grand Cru Champagne glasses we took; light yellow color; it had a nice, refreshing citrusy nose; the initial taste was of freshly zested lemon which by mid palate was joined by ginger, clove and honey infused lemon and lime which then faded back into more pure lemon zest at the end; this is a lovely, nicely rich and full bodied bubbly that can stand up to most, if not all of the other Grande Marques, in fact, it was brought in lieu of one of our traditional favs, Cristal, Krug, Dom Perignon or Taittinger Comtes de Champagne.
After writing the notes, I looked for previous ones and I noticed I found some differences in the two, both superb champagnes, but different:
10/08/18- @ Puck Restaurant Hotel Bel-Air LA-
2002 BILLECART-SALMON CUVEE NICOLAS FRANCOIS BRUT- 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay; my first introduction to this vintage for this houses tete du cuvee and I’m now a fan; following the yellow gold color came aromas of wild flowers and sweetened citrus and stone fruit which on the palate translated into honeyed, caramel, talc and toasty brioche accented lemon, lime, orange, white peach and bing cherry with a streak of minerals running through to the end; it had medium plus viscosity, lots of complexity and finished like a still wine that just wanted to hang around and please; the overall profile stayed pretty much the same throughout the entire evening as it was kept on ice; loved it. \ \ 1996 WILLIAMS SELYEM ALLEN VINEYARD PINOT NOIR RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY- were revisiting an old friend here and it greeted us and treated us to similar past remarkable treasures we’ve become so grateful to have experienced; this bottle had a low neck fill {very significant in that Burt filled his bottles to the cork, so very little additional O2 exposure in this one}, the color was a grainy, cloudy, fading cinnamon red confirming Burt`s choice to not filter or fine and that is showing some age; the nose had smoke and spicy red raspberry and the taste profile had cinnamon and spice laden red raspberry and blueberry with an emphasis on the cinnamon and raspberry; the first pour held its course over the 30+ minutes it remained in the restaurant provided Riedel Extreme Pinot Noir glass over 30 minutes; I mentioned the color indicated some age, but surprisingly, the taste profile is still ridiculously very close to what I recall in the early releases.
Cheers,
Blake
. It’s good to have good karmic routines, and this one ranks particularly high.