Question,
I have bought some bottles Champagne Cedric Bouchard.
they are from the Inflorescence range, the Cuvee is “la Parcelle”.
does anybody know how to identify the vintage?
The (recent) Roses de Jeanne cuvees have a backlabel mentioning details, but these ones are without a backlabel.
I understood the 2001 wines were only sold to U.S. and China.
I have been told this is 2002, but how can I be sure?
hope someone can help.
regards,
Etienne
Etienne,
2003 is the current vintage of this, but there is no global label standard to tell what you have. Most import companies will have a Vxx on the back label where xx represents the year so V03 means the wine is a 2003. Do not pay attention to the L01 on the front label as that is meaningless. Is there anything on your back label that appears to be a type of code?
if you can’t find anything on the back label, there should at least be a sticker on the cardboard case.
these bottles don’t have any backlabel at all.
I am situated in Europe so they don’t have an importstrip (or something like that)
Have only bought 3 bottles so don’t have the orginal cardboard neither.
on the frontlabel is mentioned;
Elaboré par Jean-Pierre Bouchard, Celles s/Ource France
Distribuee par Cédric Bouchard, Celles s/ Ource,
France / ND-1187-001/ L. 01 / Contient de sulfites.
So I was thinking the L.01 could have been the millesime, but as Brad mention this isn’t the millesime.
I also read somewhere that the 2001 millesime was distributed only to the U.S. and Japan.
Later release have all a backlabel (not only Roses de Jeanne but also the Inflorescence range)
Thanks,
Etienne
Etienne,
You are going to be in a tough spot as you likely aren’t going to be able to tell what you have (the cork won’t be dated either). You can try to make an educated guess based on when you bought them or go back and ask the person you bought them from.
Brad,
the person from who I have bought told me 2002.
as I understood it can only be 3 millesimes, but as I understood 2003 is lately released that one is ought to have a backlabel.
so it will probably 2002 or 2001.
I think it will be nice (price wasn’t too bad either; Euro 42,=)
have tasted now a couple of these champagnes and they are terrific!
Will try one next week or so.
thanks,
Etienne
Etienne,
The 2002 is good stuff so I’m sure you will be happy. There are actually some vintages of this pre-2001, but they saw almost no distribution outside of Asia.
I bought my bottles of Cedric Bouchard Inflorescence la Parcelle last year in the UK from Berry Bros & Rudd and they confirmed it was 2002 juice even though no vintage was indicated on the labels. However my bottles had back labels.
The bottles had been disgorged on the 12th April 2010 and referenced “Lieu-dit Cote de Bechalin”.
Interestingly they also stated " Elabore par Jean-Pierre Bouchard".
Oh and your price was a lot better than mine at 56 pounds sterling. However the bottles consumed so far have been delicious enough to justify that outlay.
Nigel,
can you make a picture of the backlabel and post it?
I understood the elabore part has something to do with who owns the vineyard and also a Tax-issue.
I have tasted several of his champagnes and indeed they are worth the money.
Etienne
Elabore simply refers to who made the wine. It wasn’t made by Cedric. He believes in it enough to release it with his name on the label. Cedric now owns the La Parcelle vineyard, but he didn’t make the wines from it that have been released so far.
Essentially, the Roses de Jeanne label was created for wines where he owns the land and makes the wines. Inflorescence covers the other end of the spectrum where wines that come from land he doesn’t own or that he didn’t make are released.
Brad, is the '04 going to be released soon? If so, which label is it under? Does he plan on doing late release from all wines from La Parcelle?
TIA!!
Daniel,
2003 is the current vintage of the La Parcelle that is released (at least to my knowledge; I would expect the next release to be later this year - probably in the fall). I don’t know if he will do any late releases as I have never asked, but I wouldn’t expect it as production was low and he doesn’t have a lot of held-back stock. For wines he has made, it is easier for him to plan for this as he can choose the format and have more control. It is tougher when you are buying stock as in the La Parcelle. All of that said, he does open later disgorged bottles, but I don’t know of any true commercial plans for the 99-03 La Parcelle vintages in a late release format.
I’m pretty sure Jim Cowan has posted here on the 02, fwiw; a search would bring up his notes. There is some extended discussion of the bottlings and vintages, btw, on wine disorder, for the research-minded. Iirc, old vintages of infl. la parcelle were made by Bouchard’s predecessor and purchased by him.
Brad I realised what elabore meant and, as I think you might remember from a similar thread on the UK Wine-Pages forum with Jim Cowan, it is known that Cedric didn’t make these [excellent] wines – but bought them with the vineyard.
Is it a coincidence that he shares the same surname with the winemaker? Is Jean-Pierre Bouchard his father, another relative or is it simply a common name in those parts?
Whatever the case the wine has been excellent but I have thought it interesting that there has been no definitive statement about the maker and his relationship, if any apart from a shared surname, to Cedric.
Etienne, I have taken photographs of the labels and will post them as soon as I have worked out this forum’s protocol.
I was actually more curious about the commercial releases, the La Parcelle is 2003 vs 2006 for Boloree, Haut Lamblee, Creux d’Enfer, Ursules Magnums; and it’s 2008 for Val Vilaine and Ursules 750s. Is there something about the vineyard site that demands longer aging? Or is it because the wine wasn’t made by him so it’s not as expressive by nature? Sorry, just been curious about this for a while. I work for the MA importer of the wines.
Etienne,
As requested here are the two labels from my bottles of the [allegedly 2002] Cedric Bouchard Inflorescence La Parcelle. I hope they are helpful.
Nigel,
I think you might have some 2003s. Your disgorgement date is the same as mine and the X## code normally correlates to ## being the vintage of the wine. Your back label is different from mine and mine state V03 and not M03, but I would hedge towards you having 03s. All of my 2002s all had a disgorgement in the spring of 2009 with a X## code and all of my 2001s had a disgorgement of Spring/Summer 2008.
I could be off and you might have some 2002s, but it would be odd to see different coding of vintage in some places and year of tirage in others. Then again, who knows as stranger things have happened.
As for the Elabore post, it was based on Etienne’s post on how he took the Elabore statement and not on yours. Sorry for any confusion on that point
Probably should also answer the other questions above too since I forgot to in my post above:
IIRC, Jean-Pierre is Cedric’s father. Jean Claude his uncle is the Bouchard name that was most well known before Cedric as he had his own label. As for exactly where La Parcelle came from - I and others have been told different things at different times by Cedric. I thought it came from someone in the family, others have told me it came from a family friend. Regardless, Cedric now owns it and I believe the 2007 vintage will be his winemaking. Anything before that was made by someone else.
The funny thing about all this is the Cedric has railed quite a bit about how he, his father, and the rest of his extended family don’t like each other’s winemaking. It makes it kind of funny that the Inflorescence label states the wine was made by someone whose winemaking Cedric has told me he doesn’t like. Now, just because the label says a wine is made by someone doesn’t really mean it is. Cedric can be funny in that way.
Regardless, I like the wine. As for why the La Parcelle is released older than the other wines, a lot of it has to do with cash flow and cellar space. The La Parcelle wines were there when Cedric bought them and he didn’t want to release them all at once. He had space and no need to rush. The other wines were made by him and needed to be moved in and out a bit quicker. The fact that he didn’t make the wines is also in play, but so is a bit of marketing.
Thanks Brad and what you say certainly makes sense. No problem re ‘elabore’ either.
Although BB&R clearly identified what they were selling to me as 2002 I had my doubts - hence my use of ‘allegedly’. I see that Galloni also refers to the 03 Inflorescence in his TN and rating as disgorged in April 2010 which also ties it in with mine.
While I am irritated by the lack of accuracy shown by my supplier I cannot complain about the wine which is delicious drinking. However now that the evidence suggests strongly that it is an 03 it does seem as though some aspects of that year [which despite the wine’s structure] come through in its relative softness and readiness to drink. Different taste but for me some similarities to the atypical but easy, early drinking Bollinger 03 which I also enjoyed in that mode. At least with that latter wine I knew I was getting something quite different from what I would normally expect.
Thank you too for your comments re Jean-Pierre and the various possibilities about who actually made the La Parcelle wines that have been released. I suppose it is no big deal since they have been decent wines but one wonders at the apparent confusion over who was the winemaker since it is difficult to see how that helps even from a publicity/marketing viewpoint. It also sits oddly with the alleged ‘dislike’ of the winemaking styles of some of those that might have been the maker.