Easy answer from me and my “go to bubbles” Great with a bag of Dicks…Salty chips…
Top 3:
Larmandier-Bernier Longitude BdB ($60)
Diebolt-Vallois Prestige Extra Brut BdB ($50)
Egly-Ouriet Les Premices Brut ($65)
Honorable mentions just above the $75 criteria:
-Laherte Freres ‘Les Grandes Crayeres” extra brut BdB ($80)
-Bonnaire Cramant Grand Cru BdB ($80)
-Marie Courtin Presence extra brut BdB ($80)
-Vilmart Grand Cellier d’Or ($80)
Please say more about this. @Jay_Miller too. I was unaware of any change. It’s generally a big hit at the restaurant but I haven’t tried this year’s disgorgement.
I first heard about it from Jason but was still working through my stock of 2021 disgorgement so I didn’t have a chance to try a recent one until la fete last year
I always loved LB from the first sip and it only got better with air. The version I tasted at la fete was … good. Still a good value probably. But tremendously disappointing in context
I finished the small remnants of the Laherte Freres Nature de Craie last night. Really great stuff. And it’s $75 in at least 2 places right now for sale.
Hate to be “that guy,” but I’m going to do it here because I sincerely feel that it matters …
are you talking “everything apple”, or a certain segment of the “apple universe,” if you will?
Here’s where I’m coming from:
Apple juice and Apple cider ---- big differences here
“apple juice” and/or “apple”?
For “apple”, are we talking fresh bite, or oxidized/bruised?
for “apple” what variety are we talking? Granny Smith and Fuji and Red Delicious and Golden Delicious are all drastically different from each other, for example.
To me Meunier is the biggest culprit in red apple, bruised apple and apple cider profiles.
I’ve also gotten more apple from PN (golden, yellow and apple pie) than Chardonnay. I would say BdB (Chard or Pinot Blanc) shows the least apple flavors overall.
Hmmmmm, interesting! Pinot Meunier is regularly underbrushy to me – so much so that it can be difficult for me to get past it. And I tend to associate red berries with Pinot Noir, but not all the time! To my palate, BdBs (Chardonnays, for me; I almost never go the Pinot Blanc route) usually default to the apple/pear part of the fruit spectrum, with occasional forays into lemon — and it’s those lemony ones I tried to highlight for Larry. But, yeah, gotta love how we all can perceive the same things differently!
I noticed a change with the July '22 disgorgement of NV L’échappée Belle. It tasted like, no exaggeration, apple cider. Not ‘apple-forward’, ‘apple cider’, and not a particularly clean cider either - there was a bit of funk that did not blow off, even after left in the fridge overnight. And I’d never tasted anything like this in CASES of this wine previously, going back to 2018 disgorgements.
I’m not the only one who tasted that - multiple other tasters whose palates I trust tasted it. Not just with my wine, but from another friend’s stash who enjoys Calsac. I’ve now contacted my retailer on two different occasions to ask if there may have been a stylistic change or an issue, and I’ve been assured that neither is the case.
Yet all six of that '22 disgorgement, tasted from sometime in '23 to just a few weeks ago are consistent. It tastes like apple cider. It’s not a storage issue - these came from in-bond storage, and once to my house stored at 55f. There are some recent notes on CT that speak to the apple note; though nobody was is extreme in their view as I was, there’s a number of recent notes that indicate the wine seemed to miss.
The only other bottling I’ve had an issue with is the rose, and it was similarly funky. I don’t recall the disgorgement. I haven’t had any others disgorged around then or later.
Good call. Catty-corner from Salon. His 2008 BdB was a stunner. I haven’t opened any of my 2012’s as the '08 took forever to break stride. I suspect the '08s still need time.
Not sure? Looks like I’m out of the July 22 disgorgements at home right now, for '22, I only have a Sept 22 disgorgement. I didn’t see anything about base year on the bottle; the only other number other than disgorgement is L RH20 05. No idea what that means.
I do have a January 23 disgorgement at home as well. I’ll pop that one tonight ‘for science’.
As mentioned I popped a Jan 2023 disgorgement tonight. Still savory but much more minerally / stony. This is much more a return to normal. Wonderful and fresh. I do not detect any of the ‘apple cider’ notes that I got from '22 disgorgements.