TN: Grower Champagnes at Todd's

GROWER CHAMPAGNES AT TODD’S - Chateauneuf de Todd (6/13/2009)
The theme was Grower Champagnes. This turned out to be a tremendous tasting as well as a fun night. Everyone brought great food that was uber rich making it hard to eat the amounts I really wanted to. The wines were across the spectrum in styles and types which made for a very interesting evening on the wine geek side of it. Too hard to pick a favorite for me as I marked about half the lineup as very good. Those would be the Egly-Ouriet, Selosse, 00 Vilmart, 98 Coutier, 02 Lassalle, 02 Billiot, Vilmart Rubis and Camille-Save rose. Thanks to everyone for bringing such great wine and food. It’s clear that you don’t have to grab familiar expensive bottles to get excellent Champagne. Many of the wines on the night trumped big house popular bottles quite easily.

The fun didn’t end with the Champagne as the Rock Band was fired up as was Frenchies wine closet and liquor cabinet. Most of the time there was little resembling music coming from the game area but when our hosts stepped up we were reminded that some music skills did exist at the party. Thanks to Todd and Heidi for hosting.
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Posted from CellarTracker

Nice work…and a huge thanks for the notes. Love Champagne.

i had indian food and water, it was tasty. THx for the note on the 02 Billiot. Also a giant fan of the selosse in all its shapes and forms. drool

I’ll post more later, but I need to point out we also took down a few more bottles from everybody raiding my cellar when the Champs were gone:

2000 Prunotto Barolo Bussia (slightly corked, ugh)
2003 Pio Cesare Barolo (totally corked - wtf!)
2005 Lucia Pinot Noir Gary’s
2006 Lucia Pinot Noir Gary’s
2005 La Chablisienne Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume
2007 Dehlinger Pinot Noir Rose
2006 Rhys Alesia Pinot Noir San Mateo County

ALSO, half a bottle of strawberry-infused vodka, and 3/4 of a bottle of Chopin vodka!!
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Dang Todd, a lot of hate from the Italians, big bummer! When you find your way down here, I’ll open an 02 Dhondt, one of the best grower Champs I’ve tasted.

Otto

DEAL!

no hate, they were corked. The Prunotto was at least somewhat drinkable, but the Pio Cesare was full of fail…

Great wines guys. I think the Egly Blanc de Noirs is an incredible wine, especially a few years post-disgorgement.

The Billiot Rosé is one of my go-to NV rosés along w/ Lallement & Marc Hebrart. I love the ginger/clove/cardamon component that it’s got.

Nice list, though there were a few missing options like Cedric Bouchard and Ulysses Colin. That Selosse is rocking stuff, and the Camille Saves is an amazing Rose. Still, sounds like fun, color me jealous!

Dude, next time, just send it out to us! Done deal.

There was a lot missing(Pierre Peters is notable) though we did pretty good for our group. There was some new finds also which was great. I’m definitely laying down a bottle or two of the Lassalle.

Crap…I think I missed that one. [drinkers.gif]

Two corked Barolo’s was horrid. [suicide.gif]

Two CONSECUTIVE corked Barolos, mind you.

I’m trying to ‘uncork’ the Pio Cesare right now - it’s almost passable…

Careful, I might attach myself to those bottles if I send them out… [diablo.gif]

Viva la difference! I think this wine is a poor value and is very broad on the palate for my taste. It’s $90 these days right?

Seem to be missing a Krug.

Krug is not a Grower Champagne, therefore Paul Lin would not allow it, even if Sam originally offered to sneak one in the back door.

I agree with Lyle on the Egly is not a tremendous value - it didn’t stand out at all among wines half the price.

No Diebolt-Vallois? (I know that they now are using the NM code on their label, as they are buying up to 5% fruit from their next door neighbor, but this is still Grower Champagne in my book).

Love that avatar, and glad to see it showed so well!

Mine that is… not yours, Whetstone. [blink.gif]

Contrary to popular gossip, there was to be no Krug. Sam was only following up my joke with another. [emot-words.gif]

I thought it was great but value-wise it didn’t stand up to me. The NV Billiot in Alex’s avatar is nearly half the price at equal quality.

What a great thread to post my first Berserkers post in! Todd and Cris, thank you so much for setting this up. You guys are such a blast to hangout with, I am bummed I had to leave early. I think everyone needs to come visit Napa

Thanks for the notes Cris. The Egly-Ouriet Les Crayeres has to be one of my favorite NVs. It is so well structured with a great linear finish and lots of red fruit on the midpalate and back side. That Agrapath had such fantastic minerality, I really dug that too. As for Selosse, I love nothing more than aged champagne, but I think 8-10 month fermentation in oak is taking it a bit too far. There is no finish, everything is concentrated on the palate. Same with the Coutier.