TN's: Terroir of Champagne, Montagne de Reims

TERROIR OF CHAMPAGNE, MONTAGNE DE REIMS - Hi-Times, Costa Mesa, CA (7/15/2010)

The second in a series of tastings offered by Hi-Times Wine Cellars that focus on regions of Champagne. Considering their large selection of Champagne for sale now with the upgraded cooler this is a great idea for some Champagne tastings by the store. George Pavlov put this together and didn’t scrimp on the selections offering up some of my favorite labels. A good showing overall with some surprises and slight disappointments. My three favs would have to be the Egly-Ouriet, the Ander Clouet and the 01 Vilmart.

  • N.V. Roger Coulon Champagne Brut Nature Espirit de Vrigny - France, Champagne, Montagne de Reims, Champagne
    Nose is pure golden apples. Clean apple filled palate with tart acidity. Full mouth feel which was a surprise for this non-dose wine. Lacked some length.
  • N.V. Egly-Ouriet Champagne Brut “Les Vignes de Vrigny” 1er Cru - France, Champagne, Ambonnay, Champagne
    Nose of butter biscuits and stone fruits. Pretty and complex with lots of fresh strawberry and peach notes. This isn’t deep or concentrated but makes up for it in expressiveness. I usually find the Egly-Ouriet wines a bit pricey for the quality but this was an obvious exception. Very good.
  • N.V. H. Billiot Fils Champagne Brut Réserve - France, Champagne, Ambonnay, Champagne
    Nose of berries and nectarines. Pure and focused yet sweetish and tart. This showed big with intense ripeness around the edges. More nectarines but seems to be flat towards the finish and not quite flabby. I’ve noticed more ripeness the last couple go arounds with this bottling. Starting to wonder. I enjoyed this more as a hedonistic treat.
  • 2002 René-Henri Coutier Champagne Brut Millésimé Grand Cru - France, Champagne, Ambonnay, Champagne
    Very tight nose that eventually lets some butter and tart apples loose. Drying palate with a somewhat big finish. This was either closed or just coming up short. Hoping for closed.
  • N.V. André Clouet Champagne Brut Grande Réserve - France, Champagne, Bouzy, Champagne
    The nose is like smelling a salad of berries. Big and pretty with a clean finish displaying great balance and density. Lots of berries on the palate as well. This was showing terrifically and represents a great value. Very good.
  • 2000 Camille Saves Champagne Brut Millésimé Grand Cru - France, Champagne, Bouzy, Champagne
    This seemed tight overall but it did show lots of concentration and fruit with notes of peaches and berries peaking through. I’m betting on a brighter future for this one though.
  • N.V. Pehu Simonet Champagne Brut Selection Grand Cru - France, Champagne, Verzenay, Champagne
    This seems to be coming at you from two angles. There is some stony mineral expression next to some very ripe fruit. Grapey and ripe on the palate in a sweet tart character but a distinct mineral stony note. Possibly the large inclusion from 2006(70%) is the culprit?
  • N.V. Jean Lallement Champagne Brut Réserve - France, Champagne
    Complex nose showing lemon, saline, lightly toasted bread and Belgian beer spiciness. Pretty and complex palate. The fruit is big up front but the palate falls off at the finish. Though it seems structured poorly the complexity win me over on this one.
  • N.V. Godmé Père et Fils Champagne Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru - France, Champagne, Verzenay, Champagne
    This showed some very tart apple notes but was bland and simple ultimately. Disappointing for the producer.
  • 2001 Vilmart Champagne Coeur de Cuvée - France, Champagne
    Spicy nose of ginger and cinnamon. Complex balanced palate with lots of acidity. I thought I had had this previously but that was the 2000 which I think is a better wine overall. Both are excellent though.

Posted from CellarTracker

Nice note! I’ve been a big fan of what Vilmart can do in glass over time. Pehu Simonet continues to impress me, particularly considering the price tag and exotic, unpredictable notes. I’ve unfortunately had the same experiences with Coutier being unremarkable, both NV and vintage, but the 2002 should have been more impressive than your note indicated, given the power of the vintage-too bad.

Cris,

Any thoughts on readiness/ageability of the 01 Vilmart CdC? Obviously fine now, but…?

I’m certainly no expert in this regard but I think it needs some more time to show its best but it doesn’t strike as one for the ages. I looked back at some of my notes in CT and the 2000 seems to hit me as stronger and deeper. The 2001 came off like a more medium term wine. The fruit didn’t seem to show a lot of concentration.

2001 was a particularly bad vintage in Champagne (and that might be the understatement of the year), actually before your TN about the Vilmart I was aware of only one other vintage bottling in 2001…

I haven’t heard that it was bad but I know its not one a lot declared in. Several others have though including Pierre Peters and one of those is the best PP I have tried.

Vilmart is supposed to be the king of “off vintages”.

Cris, what conclusions can be made regarding this particular region from the tasting? I do not see a common thread and with vintage and NV wines, it seems there`s not a lot of apples and apples for comparison.

Since I`m visiting Champagne in September and October, are there any producers from this tasting that would be recommended to visit?

As Mr. Marshall notes, Vilmart seems to bring the magic in bad years. I can certainly speak positively of mags of 93 CdC as of last year. Coeur de Cuvee is at the top of a very short list of vintage Champagnes I would consider from a year like 01 - where a major Tete de Cuvee would have to include a volume of squirrely fruit to release, a limited run like 01 CdC would be made from a microscopic volume of top fruit from an off year - to me, this is like grabbing a good Richebourg from 07 or 08, without a stupid premium…

I’m certainly not the person to advise you on visits to Champagne but we have several folks around who can give you lots of advice there. If I were going I would certainly want to visit Vilmart, Camille-Saves and Billiot though as they tend to be favorite producers of mine.

I honestly couldn’t say anything about the region with this small of a tasting. There are clearly different styles as well as different villages represented there.

That must have been a while ago? I know PP moved from the 2000 Chetillons directly to the 2002. They may have released the 2001 much earlier as it’s most definitely a lesser vintage, not to say a disastrous one indeed…
Of course, some bottles are very special and some people managed to make something fantastic stuff with the grapes from this year. Not necessarily declared as vintage Champagne, Cedric Bouchard made a superb Roses de Jeanne and Francis Boulard’s first release of “Les Rachais” is certainly a fantastic wine which, taken in context of the vintage, becomes an incredible achievement. I’m still holding on a few bottles that will definitely age very well.

Thanks for the thoughts Michael. Here is the wine I was thinking of:
2001 Pierre Peters Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée Spéciale Les Chétillons (France, Champagne, Le Mesnil Sur Oger, Champagne)
The two TN’s in CT as well as the two professional reviews seem pretty split on this one. [wink.gif] Its been a couple years since I have had it and it may have very well be more of an early drinker than in other vintages.

May well have been an early drinker… would have loved to try it, actually.
Les Chetillons is definitely top notch Champagne in any case. [cheers.gif]

Peters 2001 Cuvee Speciale is a very nice wine especially when compared to the vintage quality. Per the question on when it came out - it was released right before the 2000 and production was very small at only 3,000 bottles (normal production is around 10,000 bottles).

As far as the 2001 vintage - it was very bad, the worst of the decade and the worst since 1994. I was surprised at how many producers declared this vintage and even more so at the quality of a number of them. I think better selection combined with improvement in growing, harvesting, and winemaking have led to this. My favorite 2001 released to date is Vilmart’s Coeur de Cuvee - it isn’t a truly great Coeur de Cuvee, but it is a great achievement for the vintage. Another 2001 to be on the lookout for is the Philipponnat Clos des Goisses.

Would you like to revisit the year on this statement? [wink.gif]


Thanks for the thoughts on the vintage Brad.

Cris,

Meant to say that the 2001 vintage was released a little before the 2000 vintage was released. I can’t recall exactly when, but I think the '01 came out in 2008.

GROWER CHAMPAGNES FROM MONTAGNE DE REIMS - (7/15/2010)

Hey guys - thanks for all the notes
from the tasting…
a little disapointed by the Pehu Simonet showing
I had a bottle of this a couple of years back and
it was quite memorable.
Also surprised by the 2002 Coutier, as I was thinking
of picking up a few. [cry.gif]

Cheers
Rip

I too am disappointed in the Pehu-Simonet report in that I bought it based upon positive comments from others through Premier Cru on a pre arrival basis and it is now being shipped. We`ll see what we see. Here is a review from Peter Liem:

Pehu-Simonet Selection Brut Grand Cru (pre-arrival) 27.99
Peter Liem: '“Rating: () - (base 2007) - This comes from the villages of Verzy, Verzenay and Mailly, and it’s a blend of 70 percent pinot noir and 30 percent chardonnay, based on 2007 with 30 percent of reserve wines from 2006 and 2005. It shows a pronounced color from its pinot content, and its dosage is perfectly judged at 6 g/l, allowing the fruit flavors to expand in rich fragrance without really feeling sweet at all. While there’s plenty of fruit complexity, ranging in tone from nectarine and greengage plums to blackberry and black cherry, it’s the stern, almost metallic minerality of the northern Montagne de Reims that makes this wine sing, anchoring the voluptuous aromas and giving this an uncommon sophistication and refinement. Last tasted: 3/10”

I opened a bottle of this a couple weeks back and it was MUCH better. I’d lay off it were me but I like the mature notes Champagne can take on.