Last night I celebrated a slightly significant birthday in a Zoom with friends. Weather prevented us from having the Chinese meal together that we had originally planned (we were all local) but I had predistributed the Filaine a few days before.
This was my first bottle from a case, so the first time tasted. John Gilman kept urging to get some, and I now know why. It came from a case that had been sitting in the UK for years, and we figured it came from grapes grown around 2008/2010. I am not sure what to compare it to. Quite possibly the most complex Champagne I have ever had; a little bit like the Selosse substance but a different kind of brightness. It showed peaches, smoke, spice, building site dust (love that smell) and the longest of finishes.
Here is the write up.
Alexandre Filaine is a relatively new house in the town, formed by Fabrice Gass who was the previous winemaker of Bollinger. There are 1.5 hectares of organically grown vineyards scattered around Damery, in the Montagne de Reims. Here the Filaine family have been growing grapes for over 500 years. Fabrice adopts old traditional methods, such as the use of native yeast fermentation in very old small wooden barrels, hand disgorgement and dosage. His wines are not filtered and there is no malolactic fermentation. The resulting wines tend to have amazing balance, breadth and depth in flavour complexity.
3 Likes
I’ve mentioned Filaine a couple of times here and I’ve loved all of their champagnes that I’ve been able to try. I’ve never run across the Confidence - I wonder if this was a one-off cuvee?
The Confidence was renamed to DMY a few years back. Fabrice (along with other producers) had to stop using Confidence as a name when the trademark holder in Champagne began to complain.
It’s funny – there is a certain type of name you get which signifies a California meritage wine: Insignia, Symmetry, Elevage, Tapestry, etc.
Grower Champagne is developing its own “you can kind of tell that’s what it is” line of names. Eloquence, Confidence, Resonance, Ouverture, Initial, Empreinte, Efflorescence.
Mark,
Thank you for sharing your note.
Good to hear about Alexandre Filaine bottle’s gaining complexity with age, gives me a backbone to wait a decade after vintage, at least, on mine.
What would you put the drinking window for Cuvée Confidence?
Have a mix of Alexandre Filaines in my cellar. I picked up on Gilman’s suspicions on cellaring Fabrice and other quality small growers champagnes and have been speculating on laying a mix of artisanal makers down to enjoy for the next 30 years.
The grower upstarts do not have the big houses later release dates and long track records to rely on. Seeing notes from those with decades of experience is helpful, as the economics of being a small grower sends them to market young, the Somm crowd they primarily sell to are about new wines and turning inventory. The current situation with restaurants has meant there is more availability of the small growers in the market. Seems a fantastic time to go big on good growers.
Just visited Fabrice Gass and thought of this thread. Remarkable wines, really old school, and with serious farming too (no herbicides for >15 years).
Came across this thread having only recently discovered Filaine. @William_Kelley - Any sense as to the scale of production for the Cuvée Sensuum Vertigo?
Not enough! Don’t have numbers to hand but I think just a couple of thousand bottles.
1 Like