2009 Roses de Jeanne / Cédric Bouchard Champagne Inflorescence Blanc de Noirs Val Vilaine- France, Champagne (8/13/2014)
This wine was a head turner with its off the charts zingy energy. By the same token its still a bit youthfully bright and another couple years wouldn’t hurt a bit. This has Grand Cru depth with; kaleidoscopic flavors, drive and length. There is so much going on here! Paid $60 and tonight it easily drank like $100 plus. I will seek out more btls from this producer. Major palate reverb! This has improved so much since an earlier btl opened 20 months ago. (93 pts.)
Can anyone explain the pecking order of wines from this producer. This btl was great but its somewhat confusing when trying to figure out the different cuvees and labels.
Bouchard’s Roses de Jeanne line (several wines) is first tier. Second tier is the Inflorescence line (again, several wines). Not all are BdN, but almost all are.
Edited to add: The NV Infloresence Val Vilaine was indeed a great wine. Lots of up front Aube pinot noir fruit, but balanced with both minerality and acid. It had some in common with the Fluteau BdN I opened for the aperitif (another Aube producer), but the Inflorescence had more depth and is a better food partner. That is whay I ordered the wines to have the Fluteau poured first and your wine poured last.
Roses de Jeanne are the vineyards owned by Cedric. Inflorescence were the vineyards owned by his father but they have since passed into Cedric’s ownership, so now there is no Inflorescence, just a whole range of seven RdJ. They have new dark grey labels and look very cool. Mind you I bought a 2012 base Val Vilaine in Champagne last month and I wasn’t really taken by the wine. I’m prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt and hope a few more months will see it settle down and fill out. There’s a new BdN now too called Presle. Going by price ex-domaine, this is the pecking order of highest to lowest:
Creux d’Enfer Rosé
La Boloree BdB (pinot blanc)
Presle
Haut Lemblée BdB
Ursules BdN
Cote de Bechalin BdN
Val Vilaine BdN
Here’s a pic I snapped at the end of July … not the old Inflorescence cuvees have the RdJ label but the Inflorescence capsule.
I have the most experience with Val Vilaine, but have also tried several other bottlings. The '09 that you tried was, in my opinion, a real home run for Bouchard. I find the wines in general to be extremely variable, though, ranging from “this would have been worth a lot more money” (in this case I totally agree with you), to “this is extremely boring and one-dimensional, I regret buying it.” Where everything is single parcel, single vintage, I think sometimes he might be better off selling the fruit.
The La Boloree that I tried, I forget the vintage, was extremely interesting. I’ve never had a Champagne that tasted anything like that.
