Below is my CT event post from NYE. I’ll summarize by saying that while I am a big fan of Sea Smoke, I’d like to know what they are thinking with this silly Sea Spray stuff?! $80?? Honestly, other then the novelty of it, I don’t get it at all.
The other takeaway is that, blind, the $28 Moët & Chandon Imperial is nearly as good as the $130 2002 Dom. Yes, the Dom has some nice elements that set it apart a bit, but for $100+ more, it should be much much more appealing.
A simple, single blind tasting to compare the 2002 Dom to its much cheaper priced “Imperial” sibling with a couple of others tossed in the mix.
NV Moët & Chandon Champagne Imperial- France, Champagne
Light straw color with a great stream of tiny bubbles. Pear notes mixed with a touch of bread. On the palate, pear and green apple. Great balance.
2002 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon- France, Champagne
Light straw color with very small streams of very tiny bubbles. Nose mostly dominated by bread toast with just a touch of apple. Very nice balance on the palate with an almost creamy texture.
2007 Argyle Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs Knudsen Vineyard Julia Lee’s Block- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills
Very light color. Not as bubbly as the others. Initially the nose is very subdued and eventually gives up some toast notes but never really develops much. Tart green apple flavors and the bubbles are much more pronounced on the palate compared to visually in the glass. Nicely balanced.
2008 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Sea Spray- USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Rita Hills - Sta. Rita Hills
An almost honey color in the glass with plenty of bubbles. Nose shows a slight flinty note mixed with a touch of yeast and some citrus. Quite acidic and fruity on the palate and I even wrote down “slightly weird tasting” on my note sheet. This bottle is more of a novelty compared to the rest of the wines in the lineup. I can’t understand why this is $80.
Personally, I was able to successfully identify all 4 wines blind. What surprised me the most was how similar the Imperial is compared to the much more expensive DP. Posted from CellarTracker
If only i could hang on to champers that long. For some reason it’s with rare exception that i can hold on to sparkling that long. 88 Krug was one of those exceptions.
But in truth, I don’t see the point in drinking most vintage Champagnes young; they just don’t differentiate themselves enough fro their NV brethren, as Rob found.
Older Champagnes begin to emphasize other elements beyond bubbles, acidity, and fruit.
That said, I tend to enjoy others’ Champers rather than cellaring my own.
Rob, thanks for posting about the Sea Smoke. Maybe it was just their village, rather than grand cru.
I really like the Roederer NV - it’s kind of my house champagne - but had never tried Cristal until a few weeks back, when I had a glass of the 2004. I was totally underwhelmed, found it worse than the NV for current drinking, but I’m 99% sure it was because it was just much more tightly coiled and, frankly, shut down.
Similarly, I tried the 2000 Dom when it was first release - was totally underwhelmed - tried a second bottle a year-and-a-half later and it was very very good.
Also, your notes are a classic example of the rule that you can’t judge a champagne’s mousse by the bubbles you see in the glass. That’s as much a function of the glass as it is of the champagne.
The Sea Smoke may be reflecting the 2008 Vintge in the SRH. We got hit very hard by frost. We lost 2/3rds of our crop to frost. We went from around 84 tons to 24 tons. We did not make any bubbles in 2008. All the vineyards in the SRH had some frost damage. It was also a very cool growing season and a late harvest.
I was at Rob’s house for this blind tasting, and couldn’t agree more with Rob’s sentiments.
I mentioned to Rob that the Sea Spray had an almost Geuze-like sourness to it. Very strange. I am not sure if they were going for “out of the box” or if this was just a learning experience for them.
Roederer NV is my house bubbles as well. We have such a hard time keeping any around, that I try to keep this in stock so we can let our vintage wines wait 5-10+ years. Its always fun to get a few bottles and open them a few years apart to see how they progress.
I’ll probably be barred from shopping at CSW for saying this, but I’d take Roederer NV over any grower champagne within about ~$20 of its pricepoint (which recently in NYC has been an extraordinarily reasonable ~$30).
re your note on similarity between DP and imperial to me its like BMW 335 vs M3. in second gear both are awfully similar, in a tight corner at 100+ speed, M3 shows its stuff.
2002 dom is super young and tight and you shouldn’t expect to get any sort of pleasure from it now. like the 96, 2002 is a tighter more backward vintage built for aging.