Cost Plus World Market has Taittinger La Francaise Champagne for $20.88. Don’t know if every store has it at this price but the Gresham, OR location does. Can’t speak to the quality of the wine but that’s a major discount and I picked up two bottles.
Good deal. I’m not a huge fan of this wine when young, but with a few years of age, it really starts to shine in my book.
Good to know. I’ll try one tonight and put the other a way for a year or two. Thanks, Brad.
So how does this change with a couple of years of bottle age? I found this very inviting right now. Fairly rich and round with obvious brown sugar notes balanced by excellent acidity. I am going back for more today.
Scott,
If it is rich and round with any type of brown sugar note then it is already mature and likely not a new release. What you described normally takes a few years to come out. Do you happen to have the code on the bottle (printed on the glass by the label or on the neck tag)? From this, you can often determine when it was disgorged and therefore its age.
On the bottle I consumed, L7146PK00200 is etched on the bottle right below the label. My unconsumed bottle has no such etching. Can you really get any information from that?
I am betting these bottles were priced around $45 and arrived in the store about the time Lehman Brothers collapsed. They garnered no interest at the price and sat there on a high shelf, in what I can tell you is a very warm store, and prematurely aged. I hope my other bottle aged at the same rate and shows as well.
I went back to get more today and they were sold out. I knew I should have bought more!!! I didn’t because the memory of buying White Star last year, (at full price), and not liking it enough to even spend $10.00 on it was still fresh in my mind. Oh, well!
Scott,
You likely have a bottle that was disgorged late in the Spring of 2007 and probably found its way to the US sometime about a year later. For the base vintage, I believe you have a 2003 based NV with about 20% reserve wines with 2001 dominant.
Based on how it was stored and the fact that it is a 2003 base vintage wine, I am not surprised at how it has evolved. Many 2003 based NVs are best as early drinkers in my book and I have been consuming a lot of them since release. Tey are open, fruity, and very tasty. Not the most complex, but that isn’t a bad thing as they are fun wines especially when you get them for the price you did.
Glad they were good and based on your note and the wine in the bottle, I’d drink away over the next year or so as it isn’t likely to get any better (it won’t go bad; it just won’t get better).