A recent dinner with 5 wines tasted blind challenged me to ID a champagne of which I’ve had many a bottle and introduced me to one I’d never heard of and called it 2008 Cristal. {Well, maybe I backed off just a bit, but still…}
Extracted from a thread just posted:
2006 TAITTINGER COMTES de CHAMPAGNE BLANC de BLANC- blind, my bring, double brown bagged and switched around with the other champagne by our waiter, so I had a 50/50 chance to ID, but actually a bit more as I’ve had quite a few bottles {well over 100} and baring a huge bottle variation, I’m thinking it should be easy; it was not; the way this started off, I was pretty certain it was not the Comtes as it offered notes of ginger lime soda in the nose following its yellow, light green color; the taste was even more different from what I had expected with wild, honeyed and peppered melon and I’m sure I’ve never had a ’06 Comtes with these notes; so, I moved on to the 2nd champagne and it’s Comtes or maybe Cristal, but most certainly better and more to my liking; and then I went back to re-taste this and it was so different; in fact, it’s now the Comtes with everything coming together and righteously so; the final product consisted of delicious toasty brioche and honey covered lemon and yellow apple fruit, rich and creamy and yet elegant and sophisticated. BTW, this bottle had the French back label having been purchased when it was first released.
So, what is this next one?
2013 CHAMPAGNE DUMENIL SPECIAL CLUB BRUT 1er Cru- blind; 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, aged 6 years on the lees and sourced from choice fruit from the north slope of the Mountain of Reims in the little 1er cru village of Chigny-les-Roses as well as from Rilly-la-Montagne and Ludes; the color was a youthful yellow green which I had only observed very early on with the Comtes and that was only with a few bottles; the nose and taste profile was so good with lovely minerals and spice laced citrus fruit with lemon being most prevalent; it had a huge backbone of acidity and yet was in perfect balance; it’s frothy feel good mousse supported its full body and it wasn’t until I got a touch of red cherry that I became convinced this was not the Comtes along with the now evolved and more typical expression that allowed it to stand up and be accounted. I was all over the place trying to ID this wine, first calling it 2008 Cristal and then Dom Perignon. Another had it as 2002 DP. Regardless, this showed amazingly well and confirmed how many wonderful champagnes there are that are under the radar.
Cheers,
Blake
@Jon_Lawrence @Mikael_OB @Chris_Seiber @Steve_Nordhoff @brigcampbell @AstridKG @ToddFrench