Seriously, we need someone to do a big blind champagne tasting.
I donāt mind yellow label but never seek it out. Have bought reasonably priced mags a few times on WTSO for a party.
Vintage veuve often is just a little more than yellow label and in my opinion far superior. The vintage rose 08 is one of my favorites, but thatās true of a lot of 08s as I drink them. Looks like can find 12 for 75-90.
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I think the difference is that you wouldnāt go onto the Champagne thread and make ridiculous comments about how MOST grand marques are overrated garbage, sycophants who style their wines to appease the masses of old-school psuedo-oenophiles.
As much as I appreciate good faith discussions about wine, thatās a hard starting point from which to have discourse, much like laughing at fans of Veuve for being such idiots is a tough place to begin any real discussion about the wine. As a fan of GM and Growers, I read the statement, sighed, and moved on.
I guess the question I would ask is, āMikko, as you referenced āmost,ā can you give me a long list of growers who produced champagne in a style only to appease the latest fad for wine hipsters, only to fall on their face a few years later on account of their stylistic choices?ā
Iām not sure I can, and I drink champagne nearly every week, and often multiple times a week. We could have a discussion about whether no sulfur wines are a smart thing, or whether zero dosage is preferable to brut or extra brut, but hard to even begin when those preferences are couched as āthe latest fad for wine hipstersā especially when zero dosage champagnes have been on the market now for a good while, and even industry giant Louis Roederer has produced a zero dosage for a decade.
But I admire your restraint and willingness to engage.
And @John_Glas Iām very jealous you can get 2012 CH for $60. Itās over $105 in Dallas.
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To reframe this as a positive, I think of a few off the top of my head. Start with Vilmart and Marguet. This year, even as recently as last month, I had bottles open that were ringing the decade old milestone. Some of the 12 and 13 Vilmart GCdO and CdC, some 12 Marguet like Bermonts and Crayeres. None of those wines were descending into a poor drinking place. I recall a 13 Marie Courtin Resonance I drank with Dominique at the winery this past May. Beautiful wine. The 10 Larmandier-Bernier Levant, in what is not seen as a great year, is for me drinking great. Those come to mind.
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Iām a fan of zero dosage Champagne. I had no idea I was a wine hipster, but now I feel much younger and cooler than I did just moments ago. As @Frank_Murray_III likes to say, āThatās bitchen.ā
Vilmart is amazing. Veuve could learn from them!
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I think few houses in Champagne know more about making Champagne than Veuve Clicquot. They are not trying to do the same thing.
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That is good they are making better quality Champagne for the money!
VC has always been a ātoastā champ at various holidays at certain family gatherings but it was always around $40 or so if I remember correctly. I have no problem with that getting get pulled out by the hostās fridge instead of the asti spumanti or generic prosecco. An employee at the local store specifically mentioned this yearās price increase a couple of weeks ago. Iād go for La Salle or Delamotte for less but I donāt really research and buy champagne. There are 2 local shops that provide the goods for the price range I ask for.
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Letās not overlook the shiny new āgift boxā celebrating the Houseās 250th anniversary this year! 
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There is lots of decent Champagne out there for $30-40 and lots of really good Champagne in the $40-60 range. If you canāt find them thatās your problem. But unless Iām stuck in some foreign land that only has big brand NV Champagne I will no longer bother with them.
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The most recent bottles of base level Delamotte Iāve had were hollow and disappointing, an issue discussed by a number of folks on the champagne thread. I think right now if youāre looking for a bottle of champagne thatās going to be at most large liquor stores in that $40-55 range for a holiday get together, Lanson Black Label is probably your best bet. And Charles Heidsieck. Then after those two, maybe Roederer Collection 242. Of course, if youāre in MN and can get CH for $30, you should be as many cases as the store will let you.
This is a general comment, not one responding to your comment, but I think folks are really overlooking the reinvestment in quality at Veuve. The Grand Dame program has improved, with 2012 a really solid wine. The vintage program is improving, with many rave reviews especially since 2008. The EBEO bottling is one I would implore any serious champagne fan to give a try. It is a low dosage champagne comprised entirely of reserve wines, some of which are really very old, giving the wine a combination of good rich leesy complexity with crisp acidity and freshness. I am not always a fan of their wines, and my notes in the champagne thread are honest and prove that point, but theyāre upping quality and making a concerted effort at improvement on both the āfor the massesā and āfor the geeksā wines.
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Iām actually a really big fan of extra brut extra old.
We had a 89 grande dame from mag last month and if you told me it was a 19 I wouldnāt have been surprised. Very few growers will age like that. Maybe chetillons.
Love every bottle of GD Iāve had but wouldnāt open it with most of the company mentioned above. Iāve opened 3 bottles of UM (and a bottle of GD at least 15 years ago at a NYE party) with non wine friends and itās always just another sparkler to them. Like I mentioned above I havenāt researched and sought out much Champagne, but itās on my radar for a small % of my collection, and Iāll visit that thread you mentioned. Thanks for the Lanson recco. Iāll try to find it for this yearās ātoastā.
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Great suggestions - CH and Roederer brut premier / now collection are our go-to in this space. Iāll have to try the Lanson.
One thing I love about Charles Heidsieck is the amount of information they have on the bottle. You can get some serious gems at a very fair price.
A note regarding Lansonā¦ one of the things that characterizes the House is that the wines do not undergo malolactic fermentation, which means the champagne can be a bit sharper on the acid while young; and are very age-worthy, rounding out after a few years in the cellar. The Lanson Extra Age Brut is killer if you can find some.
Unfortunately this is outdated information. I think the no-MLF approach applied only to the black label, whereas the other wines had portions that went through MLF - although these wines, too, were mostly based on wines that had malo blocked.
However, Lanson has made the black label with partial MLF for almost a decade now, starting with either 2013 or 2014 vintage. The wines are still based on wines that had MLF blocked and wines that have gone through MLF usually range from 20 to 25% in the black label.
However, Iāve understood that the old no-MLF Lanson style, which was very incisive and steely, really calling for long aging (and which was very ageworthy) is becoming a thing of the past - they want their wines more accessible in their youth with more complexity from that partial MLF.
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The Strattons created Johnnie Walker Black and Veuve Cliquot-themed bathrooms in a nod to their favorite drinks.
How was the Disgorged in 2021 effort? Loved the 2020 and hope my shop moves into those.
The upside is that they are crisp and racy, but are soft enough to enjoy young. Give em a shot.