Paging Brad Baker

WINE TALK
1

Brad, tell me about Hure Freres in Ludes. He was just here and had some intriguing wines (vintage cuvées with 10 years on the lees and one made from a 30 yers solera of reserve wines).

2

Roberto,

Give me an hour or so and I will shoot you over an email with a detailed write-up I did on them. I love what Francois Hure (and now his brother) have done. He is a fast rising star and the wines just keep getting better and better. A cool dude to hang out with too.

3

Roberto,

Actually, we will make this easier (and just in case anyone else wants to learn about Hure too). Click on the link below and go to page 16 for the article on Hure:
http://www.champagnewarrior.com/ChampagneWarriorIssue14.pdf

What I refer to as the “New Wine” in the article is the solera blend that has now been named Memoire and is on its second release. A great wine.

4

Brad, Is there anything you don’t know about champagne?
My apologies Roberto for hijacking your thread, but since we’re paging Brad, I have a quick question:

This is a new region for me, and one I’m excited about.
Can you recommend 3-5 wines I must try <$300?

Krug 96 is my current favorite. I like dom in several vintages. Taittinger CdC 04 Was good, but to me, not as good as 03 Dom. I’m sitting on single bottles of Crystal and Salon. Feullatte’s (sp?) Palm d’Or did not impress - I didn’t care for the acetic acid/rotten cranberry notes, but we love his bulk $40 NV brute. What I liked about the Krug was the cream, brioche and texture.

So who/what else are must tries?

5

And for Champagne Warrior subscribers on CellarTracker, here is the same article.

https://www.cellartracker.com/proarticle.asp?iProArticle=363

You can click through to the wines as well.

6

Jody–I am not Brad( but I am having dinner with him tomorrow champagne.gif ). I think you should look for 85 and 88 Krug to see what maturity can do. The 96 is still a baby.

7

And if you are a champagne nut and aren’t subscribing to Brad’s rag, WTF!?!? Exceptionally informative and entertaining. Even though I buy much less wine than I did, this is a subscription I don’t intend to let lapse. Great combo pkg with cellartracker

8

Jim, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check those out.
I still have yet to try
Pol Roger SWC
Vilimart CdC
Bouchard Inflorensence
or any Selosse

Would you recommend any of those over a mature Krug (from an educational perspective)? I understand Selosse may be impossible to source ~$300.

Neal, I just noticed Brad has his own site thanks to Eric’s link - I’m a noob, what can I say - I will sign up pronto! I thinks its time for me to give Todd and Eric money too - gawd, I’m such a leech! [smileyvault-ban.gif]

9

Opened a bottle of the '88 about a year ago. It was revelatory. Mind-bending. We picked it up at the winery, so provenance wasn’t an issue.

10

Jody. You can find selosse initiale and substance for sub $300. Gives you a sense of the house style.

11

Jody-I love Bouchard Inflorescence and it’s below $100. I have bought a case each of the last 4 NV “vintages”. Get some.

Xavier: I bought my 88 Krug at the winery too. It is incredible stuff.

12

Thanks so much for the info!