I 100% agree with this in almost all cases. I’ve reloaded on recent back vintage champagne many times, just like you and @M.Kaplan have said.
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Lots of stores have tastings, otherwise find friends that open stuff lol
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I’m not Andrew, but…
I quite like '17 base year Ulysse Collin Les Maillons and Cédric Bouchard Les Ursules.
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Yup. My wine group meets monthly and if we don’t have Champagne themed dinner, there are always a few bottles to taste. We drink quite a bit of Champagne together. I always try to bring something that few if any have tasted before. And verticals are often informative.
@ErnestL, where do you live? Champagne is widely available and, except for highly allocated, easy to obtain. Gather some friends and have a Champagne dinner. One of our most enjoyable recent dinners was Champagne and fried chicken. Everyone brought a bottle or two and their favorite local fried chicken. Great fun.
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I now live in South Florida between Miami and Palm Beach, north of the halfway point. We moved down here a couple of years ago. I used to travel for work a lot but that has slowed down. We’re still getting situated.
Fried chicken and champagne sounds amazing. I am actually planning a dinner around that same theme, albeit with friends that are not so into wine. From your experience, were there any bottles that stood out as pairing better?
There was a period of time where folks were going gaga for 2001 Burgundy because they were showing great at about age 8 and 9.
Still showing pretty great haha
Also true!
For classic fried chicken, not hot or spicy, the best pairings for me are youngish Blanc de Blanc with good cut and at least medium body. While I adore aged and oxidative champagne, those are not my first choice with fried chicken. That said, it’s all pretty delicious, so go to town.
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We did a champagne and fried chicken dinner this year that @Mason_H hosted; there were a lot of different styles, but I thought the 96 Krug, 11 Ursules, and 16 Chetillons all went well with the chicken despite being very different styles. 15 Boloree was probably a bit too delicate.
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I agree with what @Sarah_Kirschbaum is saying, and there are some wines & regions where I prefer the “off vintages” more in some years. The 2001 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvée comes to mind, as does many…many off-vintages in Bordeaux (I would choose 2001, 2002, or 2004 over 2003 or 2005 in Bordeaux right now).
I recall some panning the 2008 vintage in Piedmont calling it too lean when comparing it against 2007 when they were released, and now I’m glad to have loaded up on 2008’s but have only 1-2 bottles from 2007 or 2009. All this is to say, of course I also have wines from the great vintages & I am happy to have them…but there is an appreciation for balance in my cellar and that means not every wine has to be the “greatest” from a producer, region, or vintage. For me, seeing the wines in “off years” highlights how special the work that is being done in the vineyards and the cellar. I also believe that enjoying the off vintages also helps me appreciate the great vintages even more when I encounter them.
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I had a wonderful Egly-Ouriet VP the other night that was base 2015. It was my first go at this bottling so I have nothing to compare it to, but there was nothing to complain about.
I was recently at a dinner with a number of other wine nerds including @Marcus_Goodfellow. One of them, who has decades of experience drinking French wines asked if anyone was excited about the warm trio - 2018, 2019, 2020 - in Champagne. Some of us expressed concern about softness and lack of acidity, to which he said, “I am so excited! I love warm vintages!” Each to his/her own, right?
No doubt, great producers will make good wine in most any vintage. But would you choose it over the 08/12/13/etc? Or are they asking a significant discount from the better vintages? Otherwise, I think that’s kind of the point. Why choose a lesser vintage for the same price unless you actually like it better.
I think there were some great champagne made in 18-20. Not so much for 15.
Not to get too far off topic, but the wines from those vintages (18 - 20) that I’ve tired from great producers have been great. I think a “bad” vintage is something to be more worried about when buying fairly blindly, but when you’re looking at great producers, you should have a lot less to worry about.
They’re also not bad vintages unlike 15.
They are much warmer than usual, which I imagine would make some people cautious.
So far the wines have been good again, unlike 15.
I’ve now opened LC15 (2015) Prevost Fac-Simile 10 times. It is an outstanding vintage for the wine - and I’ve had most of them. There is a very pure essence of strawberry in these wines, with an earthy backdrop. Some of them have been slightly more oxidative than others, but I have enjoyed the acid balance and complexity of the palate, the length of the finish, the harmony, and the overall impression of this wine greatly.
With that said, I’ve had 2015s that I’ve had issues with, including (some bottles) of the Beguines from Prevost…while…oddly, others have been perfectly fine. Liem describes the issue nicely: 2015 | ChampagneGuide
-mark
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All the 2015 base Ulysse Collin wines I have had, most of which I’ve had multiple times, have been outstanding.
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