A meal worthy of The Great Gatsby, and everyone got all gussied up including borrowing a dress? That’s a Leo in my book!
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Oh my, this made me crave bubbly and dim sum. Happy new year and glad you saw the night all the way through to the end. It’s the only way to be sure.
Thanks for the note. I visited TC in June and discovered some terrific Pinot Blancs from Left Foot Charley and Bonobo.
Two baller donations coming up!
About that photo… As a Purdue grad, I think this says it all:
Happy new year and thanks for the knowledge.
NV Paul Bara Champagne Grand Cru Grand Rosé - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru (12/31/2021)
– popped and poured –
– tasted non-blind over approx. 1 hour –
– from 375mL –
Always a solid bottle of bubbles. Dry without being austere. Plenty of crispy red berry flavor with a pleasant little chalky note in the background.
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Pulled a bottle of what has become one of our house sparklers to pair with New Year’s brunch today. It certainly did the job with eggs sunny side up, toast, and bacon muled from a little Czech butcher in Montgomery, MN.
NV Marc Hébrart Champagne Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru (1/1/2022)
– popped and poured –
– tasted non-blind over a couple hours –
NOSE: light, crispy, powdery apple. Fairly expressive.
BODY: frothy head when poured, which quickly dissipates, leaving a loose but lively bead. Bright, light yellow color.
TASTE: dry, but not austere; crisp apple; not oxidative; pretty amazing to get a BdB of this quality at only $35.
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Baller x2. Thanks for the note. How’d the '90 Haut Brion hold up against such stiff competition?
OMG that photo! (swoons)
Roederer Estate Brut (Anderson Valley)
I’d be happy drinking this forever, or until I finagle an invite to Steve’s post-plague bubbly blowout. 
Apple and citrus. Very bright with tiny fine bubbles that dance across the palate. A nice way end to 2021 and begin Dryuary. I bought a second bottle to enjoy on February 1st.
Einstein-worthy fun fact: Louis Roederer owns several other wineries. They recently purchased Merry Edwards, an excellent Pinot producer in the Russian River Valley.
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Since there are a few notes on this already and FMIII and I have a note teed up it’s appropriate to share the story of Dom Perignon. Yes, he was a real dude, a monk in fact, and he hated bubbles in his wine. He despised sparklers. Heck, if it wasn’t for the British we wouldn’t have sparklers or port. Those guys will drink anything. LOL
Don believed in minimal intervention, let’s say he was the first grower champagne producer before Solosse by a couple hundred years. But his influence regarding champagne is unmatched. True story.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_P%C3%A9rignon_(monk)
Dom Pierre Pérignon, O.S.B. (French pronunciation: [dɔ̃ pjɛʁ peʁiɲɔ̃]; December 1638 – 14 September 1715), was a French Benedictine monk who made important contributions to the production and quality of Champagne wine in an era when the region’s wines were predominantly still red. Popular myths frequently, but erroneously, credit him with the invention of sparkling Champagne, which did not become the dominant style of Champagne until the mid-19th century.
In Perignon’s era, the in-bottle refermentation (now used to give sparkling wine its sparkle) was an enormous problem for winemakers. When the weather cooled off in the autumn, fermentation would sometimes stop before all the fermentable sugars had been converted to alcohol. If the wine was bottled in this state, it became a literal time bomb. When the weather warmed in the spring, dormant yeast roused themselves and began generating carbon dioxide that would at best push the cork out of the bottle, and at worst explode, starting a chain reaction. Nearby bottles, also under pressure, would break from the shock of the first breakage, and so on, which was a hazard to employees and to that year’s production. Dom Pérignon thus tried to avoid refermentation. He did introduce some features that are hallmarks of Champagne today, particularly extensive blending of grapes from multiple vineyards.
In 1718, the Canon Godinot published a set of wine-making rules that were said to be established by Dom Pérignon. Among these rules was the detail that fine wine should only be made from Pinot noir. Pérignon was not fond of white grapes because of their tendency to enter re-fermentation. Other rules that Godinot included was Pérignon’s guidance to aggressively prune vines so that they grow no higher than three feet and produce a smaller crop. Harvest should be done in cool, damp conditions (such as early morning) with every precaution being taken to ensure that the grapes don’t bruise or break. Rotten and overly large grapes were to be thrown out. Pérignon did not allow grapes to be trodden and favored the use of multiple presses to help minimize maceration of the juice and the skins.[3]
Pérignon was also an early advocate of wine-making using only natural processes, without the addition of foreign substances
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NV Salmon Champagne 100% Meunier Brut - France, Champagne (1/1/2022)
Citric, slight vinous nose. Fine perlage. Lemon, quince, passion fruit on palate, more lemony the warmer it gets. A bit simple but pleasant to drink. (90 pts.)
Extra info: it is relatively unusual to have a champagne from 100% pinot meunier, though it has become more common in the past decade or so. Champagen Salmon specializes in meunier. I can only assume the shooting star on the cork refers to the apocryphal story about Dom Perignon: when first tasting champagne, he supposedly said “Come quick, I’m drinking the stars.”
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From Wikipedia, Dom was long gone by the time that quote showed up but folklore is fun.
The quote attributed to Perignon – “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!” – is supposedly what he said when tasting the first sparkling champagne. However, the first appearance of that quote appears to have been in a print advertisement in the late 19th century.[5]
A major proponent of the misconceptions surrounding Dom Pérignon came from one of his successors at the Abbey of Hautvillers, Dom Groussard, who in 1821 gave an account of Dom Pérignon “inventing” Champagne among other exaggerated tales about the Abbey in order to garner historical importance and prestige for the church.[1]
Groussard’s myth achieved more than prestige for the church, it helped commercialize champagne at the turn of the twentieth century. The Syndicat du Commerce used the myth to promote Champagne and the Champagne region, producing a pamphlet called Le Vin de Champagne in 1896 that celebrated Perignon as the inventor of Champagne by following “ancient traditions.” The myth served to protect Champagne made in Marne as the original sparkling wine and dismiss other wines as imitators. The myth also helped distance Champagne from its associations with aristocratic decadence and transform it as a drink made from a monk’s labor and persistence.[6]
The myths about Pérignon being the first to use corks and being able to name the precise vineyard by tasting a single grape likely originated from Groussard’s account.[7]
Prior to blending he would taste the grapes without knowing the source vineyard to avoid influencing his perceptions. References to his “blind tasting of wine” have led to the common misconception that Dom Pérignon was blind.
Contrary to popular belief, Dom Pérignon did not introduce blending to Champagne wines but rather the method of blending the grapes prior to sending them to press.[8]
Yep, it’s a fun quote, but like most of these things, just a little too good to be true.
Happy New Year to all you Berserkers - love the charitable run this community is on!
To ring in 2022, Anya and I went with Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle No 24. I don’t drink many sparklers, usually saving them for a special occasion, and this proved a worthy bottle for a hopefully stellar 2022.
Jumps out of the glass with effervescent tangerine and warm almond on the nose. Lychee, lemon curd, and brioche enter the palette with scalpel-like precision, rolling out with smooth, refreshing elegance as floral and mineral tang bring everything home harmoniously. A touch of sweetness quickly tamed by citrus rind keeps you coming back for more, but also makes you want to pause and savor the long finish. Proved an excellent foil to spinach and dried cherry with dijon vinaigrette salad. Cheers!
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And to wrap up from last night’s Champagnes, here are the final two. We had about 1/3rd a bottle left of the Autrefois and nearly 1/2 of the Les Chemis d’Avize. And with the leftover wine, I can offer the other educational piece to satisfy Patrick’s qualifier to teach him more about Champagne.
Tonight, most of the bubbles are gone from the Autrefois, and there is a decent pop left in the Les Chemins d’Avize. In essence, both are nearly still when I finish writing my notes that follow. In reality, Champagne starts out as still wine, before anything resembling a bubble is dissolved into it. With the fall harvest that occurs, the wines go into some form of vessel, whether it be wood, steel or amphorae, and they do like any other wine, they ferment. And before they go to bottle, usually just before the following summer after harvest, they are stiil, the vin clair. But to get the bubbles, a mixture is added, wine, sugar and yeast, to generate the CO2 as the wine ferments once it’s removed from that first vessel and placed into bottles. This process of adding the sugar and yeast, and perhaps I am oversimplfying, is called liqueur de tirage. It is this mixture that transforms what is still into what we know as bubbly.
Tonight, I allowed that process to return to its original still state, and for me that is the joy in really good Champagne, as these two wines below represent for me. The still wine should have acid, complex flavors, texture and presence, just like any other still wine. Both of these deliver that for me.
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2013 Larmandier-Bernier Champagne Grand Cru Les Chemins d’Avize - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru (1/1/2022)
First of two that arrived in the summer 2021. Disgorged June 2020, the fruit here comes from 2 old vine parcels in Avize. 2 grams of dosage, and given the disgorge date, almost 6 years on the lees. Big picture, I am starting to finally understand the L-B texture and style for their top end cuvees (this and the Levant VV). Having now had several bottles of the latter across various vintages, there is a polished, textural element that strikes me about these wines. This trait was evident in this bottle, a sense of completeness, a polish that translates to me more like a still wine in tone. Citrus, orange, lemon pith and mineral with the early pours from the bottle, after a few hours the wine also adds something savory, joining the citrus, plus ginger. This is not a powerful wine, instead a real balanced gem of a wine that is suave, yet with great depth…and we still had about half bottle from last night which I stoppered up for retasting today. The stopper worked well, retaining most of the CO2. This tastes a lot like it did yesterday, and while it’s hard to describe, it’s like a cross of lemon/savory/pungent brown spice like a ginger with a honeyed tangerine. Unique and makes me keep wanting to sip and get my heard around it. -
2015 Laherte Frères Champagne Extra Brut Les Vignes d’Autrefois - France, Champagne (1/1/2022)
Disgorged February 2019, 2-4 grams of dosage, 100% Pinot Meunier. Apple pie filling, crushed raspberry, peaches, lime flesh and a citrusy finish. After about 90 mins, I can really sense the red berry core, plus some flint too…and then retasting today from the stoppered bottle from last night, a lot of the CO2 is gone, leaving the wine pretty close to still. And in that, I can finally sense the texture and depth here. I believe too I like the wine this way more than I did last night. There is a citrusy, ginger/mint note that really comes through, wrapping around a red fruited pastry. Really delicious today.
Posted from CellarTracker
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Carnes…I was gonna tell you how brilliant you are for picking that Vilmart to drink, and then I saw the photo. Now, I want to say how wonderful it is to see you and your family, dude. One of the days again, I’ll drag my ass back there again and we can get together. I miss seeing you and will always remember how kind you were to me when I was on that business trip a few years ago and you treated me like family. 
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Wonderful notes Frank. This line struck me in particular. With the Laherte Ultradition we had last night, I enjoyed the last 1/2 glass the best when it had just a very light amount of bubbles remaining. Then I could really explore what a delicious wine it was independent of the exciting effervescence.
![[winner.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/07ec25c9fd71159fe15d7f1ba5fad64e91238d0e.gif "winner"){kind=small}
Chris, you are zooming right along. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
As promised:
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The line up
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