Posted from CellarTracker
Dale,
I love Ruinart’s vintage BdB’s. I just took delivery on a couple of these. It sounds like I should wait a bit based on your TN. 2009 is such a precocious vintage, they tempt me now.
Cheers,
Warren
Warren, I’ll defer to those with a vast more experience than me for the holding period - but it certainly felt more tight than say the 09 Cristal which was a flamethrower since day one. Wife and I love the NV Ruinart too for a high end, non vintage champers.
Im also a big fan of this champagne, especially the 02 and 06. Thanks for the notes on the 09.
I’ve tried and really liked the NV. How would you characterize the difference and the value proposition in stepping up to the vintage bottles?
Hi Chris. I`m assuming your question is to the open forum and will give you my input. There is enough of a swing to merit having the vintage over the NV IMHO. Both are consistently good and the vintage takes it to another level with more depth, complexity and richness. I’ve had many a bottle of the vintage and all have held there own against most of the Grande Marques. In fact, it’s a great blind tasting trial. I’ve seen many humbled by that experience.
Chris,
The Ruinart NV Blanc de Blancs and Rose are really meant for drinking on release or within 2-3 years. They are all about bright fruit and easy enjoyment. There is some complexity to the wines, but they really aren’t meant for secondary characteristics. I enjoy both, but look at them as high quality wines for easy, crowd pleasing drinking. The Dom Ruinarts are completely different with much more structure and a focus on blending Chardonnay from the Northern Montagne de Reims and Cote des Blancs. Both the Dom Ruinart BdB and Rose age beautifully and can compete with the best of the best. The Dom Ruinart BdB is unique for a big name prestige BdB as it has a good portion of its Chardonnay from the Montagne de Reims. This gives it a different profile and can help it excel is certain vintages (like 2002). The Dom Ruinart Rose is essentially the Dom Ruinart BdB with some red wine added and drinks more like a Chardonnay Rose than a typical Rose from Champagne.
Both the Ruinart NV and Dom Ruinart ranges are well worth the money, but with NV prices rising at a greater clip than the Dom Ruinart, the Dom Ruinart is becoming more and more attractive to me.
Richer, longer, more character, but also in need of more age. The quality difference is there, but the value proposition is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t drink as much Champagne as Brad, Blake and some others here, but I think my two favorites are Taittinger CDC and Dom Ruinart.
And, I agree with you that the NV is really good.
The NV BdB Ruinart is our house favorite for NVs- It consistently delivers on the pleasure scale and stands as my argument for how a moderate brut dosage (interweb says 8-9 g/L) can round out and balance a glass of bubbly. (Not a fan of the searing acidity of many non-dosage wines, popular as they may be). Until recently I would buy Ruinart NV at ~$60-$65 / half case, but at the moment I’m seeing ~$75+/btl, sigh.
That said, the vintage versions were for me, a clear step up. Even at 2-3X the price they are sort of “reasonable”, (compared to Burgs anyway). I am always glad to have a few in the cellar but I don’t chase them.
I also like (in no particular order): Philipponnat, Jacquesson, Heidsieck Brut Nature. Even if the Bouchards of the wine world are becoming hard to source, its still a good time to like Champagne.
Lets hope that Champagne’s self-inflicted shortage is temporary and with time increasing supplies will moderate prices on easier-to-find NVs.
Not the fun type of updates, but I snagged one more of these 09’s from Mac Arthurs @ $179.99 per. Good thing too. The 2010 is $250 / and many sources on WS Pro have it at $300. Yikes.