TN: Institute of Masters of Wine Annual Champagne Tasting (91 Tasted)

WINE TALK
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INSTITUTE OF MASTERS OF WINE ANNUAL CHAMPAGNE TASTING - Ferry Plaza Building, San Francisco, California (9/28/2009)


This ihas been a great annual event for about five years, I believe. I’ve been attending for the past three. The event is underwritten by Moet Hennessy USA, and the Champagne producers represented donate the bottles for this tasting. One great aspect of the tasting is that you pour your own samples (with the exception this year of the vintage Rosés, since there were fewer samples of those, which were poured for us by Peter Marks, MW). There were more producers represented this year than the past two years (and more attendees too), and I was able to sample 91 different Champagnes in the three-hour period of the tasting. I found the non vintage Champagnes to be significantly better than last year, and somewhat better even than in '07, so this looks like an excellent year to buy non-vintage Champagne. The rosés, in particular, were very strong. Most of the vintage Champagnes were at least as good as prior years, although I was a little underwhelmed by a couple of the 2000s I tasted.

The producers that most impressed me with what I tasted at this event were Delbeck, Drappier, Charles Heidsieck (as always), Henriot, Krug (of course), Lanson, Bruno Paillard, Pol Roger, Ruinart, Taittinger (much more than in years past), and Vilmart. My WOTT was the '98 Dom Perignon Rosé. Also very fine were the Krug Grande Cuvee, the '97 Lanson Gold Label Brut, the 2000 Pol Roger Brut Rosé, the '98 Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru, the '03 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rosé Brut, the '98 La Grande Dame and the 2000 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee. In general, the tasting left me very excited about the Champagnes available this year, much more so than for the last two years.
L. Aubry

Besserat de Bellefon

H. Billiot

Bollinger

Chartogne-Taillet

Gaston Chiquet

Delbeck

  • N.V. Delbeck Champagne Brut Heritage - France, Champagne
    Light pink tinged yellow color; pear, cream nose; good tart pear, lemon, lime palate; medium finish (91 pts.)
  • 2001 Delbeck Champagne Brut - France, Champagne
    Lemon yellow color; yeasty, doughy nose; yeasty, citrus, light toast palate; medium finish (92 pts.)

Deutz

Drappier

Charles Ellner

René Geoffroy

Pierre Gimonnet

Godmé

Henri Goutorbe

  • N.V. Henri Goutorbe Champagne - France, Champagne, Aÿ, Champagne
    Light yellow pink color; apple nose; tart apple, strawberry palate; short-medium finish (87 pts.)

Alfred Gratien

Marc Hébrart

Charles Heidsieck

Henriot

Krug

Jean Lallement

Lanson

A. Margaine

Jean Milan

Moët & Chandon

Monmarthe

G. H. Mumm

Bruno Paillard

Perrier-Jouët

Pierre Peters

Piper-Heidsieck

Louis Roederer

Pol Roger

Ruinart

Camille Saves

Pehu Simonet

Taittinger

Veuve Clicquot

Vilmart


Posted from CellarTracker

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That’s it, 91 wines?

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Richard, wow, thank you!

I couldn’t even go through them all, just skimmed, adn will come back to read it later, as I’m taking off soon.

How fortunate to have such a tasting, and for us to have somebody taking notes like that!

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Very helpful notes on a lot of wines; thank you for posting. I wish there were more comprehensive champagne tastings like this. Too bad about the flutes, though…

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Peter,

Yup, only 91. Very funny. There was more on hand than last year, when I only got to about 70 Champagnes.

Joe,

You’re right that the flutes are unfortunate. I did a doubletake when I saw that’s what was on hand for the tasting, as I think most wine geeks are aware that, while flutes may be an ideal way to experience the bubbles in Champagne, they’re inferior to more regularly shaped tasting glasses for experiencing every other aspect of Champagne, as wine. I plan to bring my own glass to the tasting next year.

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Dang, I’d die a happy man after a tasting like that. Is this open to the general public or do you need to know somebody ITB to get you in the door?

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Joe,
This tasting started as a celebration for those who had completed the course work of the Institute of Masters of Wine, but it’s open to the public, and advertised on The Juice, which publishes tastings open to the public all over the country. The price has gradually crept up to $50 this year, which is still a relative bargain. It’s definitely one of my favorite tasting events of the year.

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$50 is beyond a relative bargain!! I wonder if they ever host it in SoCal…

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That’s good in my book. I’d be tempted to fly out for a Napa or Sonoma visit and attend this one day as part of the trip.

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Turns out the Institute for Masters of Wine is doing a champagne tasting here in DC on November 4, though the price is, alas, $115 rather than $50. It’s a great opportunity so I’m still going - probably going to bring a glass just in case, though.

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I want to express my admiration for your ability to taste and take notes in that situation.

On the plus side…
Great opportunity to taste a large number of Champagnes.
Very reasonable cost.
Mostly self poured made it much easier to taste at ones own pace.

On the minus side…
Supply and demand for the “top” wines means getting to them early in order not to miss them. It remains a challenge to organizers to distribute those wines evenly and fairly and in a way that avoids the rush and crush around them.
Too few spit buckets. It was a constant issue.
Too few and too small tables. This created cramped and crowded situations around many tables and made it difficult to access spit buckets.
Industrial flutes.

As exited about it as I was, I got somewhat less out of it than I hoped. I probably need more practice at navigating an event like this. Even with bread and cheese available my palate began burning out after after about 45 or 50 wines. Also it seems
impossible to spit enough to not end up pretty light headed after a while. I left a bit dazed.

Still I’ll be back next year.

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Richard,

thank you so much for all of your time and effort to assemble this terrific post !

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Ned,
Very good points about the set up of the event. The lack of sufficient spit buckets was complained about by a number of people. It wasn’t a problem for me because I always carry my own plastic spit cup to events like this (and had an extra one that I gave to someone who was looking longingly at mine). Having been to the event before, I also knew where to look for the vintage Champagnes that tend to run out first, even though they managed to split those up among more tables this time. Other than the need for more spit buckets and the inadequacy of the flutes as tasting glasses, though, I have to applaud the volunteer members of the Institute for how well they organized things and monitored the tasting this year.

Thanks for the kind comments on the notes.

–Richard