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1995 Louis Roederer Champagne Vignoble de la Montagne Late Release - France, Champagne (2/18/2023)
From magnum, deep yellow color, red fruit on the nose, lychee, red apple, red pear, nutmeg on palate with a chalky, lemony finish. This is at the perfect stage of maturity for me.
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Interesting, I’ve had only good experiences and actually prefer the 375s over larger bottles of the Grande Cuvee when traveling to specific locations such as Zihuatanejo or to a ski lodge or when it is just me.
We broke our 7 week dry streak last night with this lovely bottle.
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2002 Ruinart Champagne Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs - France, Champagne (2/19/2023)
Considerably developed from the last bottle two years ago, much more nutty brioche on the nose, hint of cider (not pre-mox cider), but still with freshness and lively mousse. Much more golden than I remember the last bottle being as well. Very enjoyable drink, a little on the generic side of big house champagne, but showing elegance and depth, approaching maturity for me. These were shutdown for a while, I think - no longer! At a very good place for pleasure drinking.
Posted from CellarTracker
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Selectively posted on other forums:
Yesterday, our beloved Kansas Jayhawks were playing an important basketball game against Baylor who they co-shared the Big Xll conference lead with along with Texas and there’s only 4 more games to go in the regular season.
The first half was a travesty and KU almost got blown out of the tub trailing by as much as 17 points at one time and 13 at halftime. And then the 2nd half started and it was all Kansas and the blow out got reversed as they won by 17.
We went from being subdued, disconsolate and irrational to being elated, ecstatic and sort of rational, whooping and hollering and high fiving about our home while wearing our lucky Jayhawk logo shirts.
It was time to celebrate and that means champagne in our home, but which one to pull? It took about 10 seconds to figure out the answer:
2006 TAITTINGER COMTES de CHAMPAGNE BLANC de BLANC- I’ve had over 100 bottles of this stupendous bubbly and it had been a while since the last bottle, maybe 4-5 months; also, I wanted to track where some of my bottles purchased over 5 years ago are going now that they have a bit of “age”; well, surprise, surprise; I expected to find more toasty notes from the Maillard reaction, but none to be found; in fact, this bottle seemed to be a “light weight” version with honeyed lemon, lime and orange now more evenly distributed as the initial lemon oil dominance has now balanced out with some orange peel coming in; speaking of balance, it was perfectly balanced and had that signature streak of bright acidity running all the way through; even the mouthfeel was different as it had a frothy, cotton candy like mousse; because of so many differences, I’m not sure if this one was any indication as to where other bottles are trending; however, it is truly still expressing elegance, charm and sophistication. I guess I’ll have to open another bottle soon to check for bottle variation. Maybe, after another crucial Kansas Jayhawk victory.
Cheers,
Blake
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I have a question. The back label of a bottle of Marie Courtin Resonance has the year 2019 printed on it. It was disgorged in April 2022 so it doesn’t meet the requirement of at least 36 months on the lees to be considered vintage champagne. Is that correct?
Camille Saves for Champagne Sunday. A beautiful wine to wake up to.
They must be different lots because our palates are closely aligned 
. We are both in the 100+ '06 Comtes club and still loving it.
1 Like
most people do. has nothing to do with lots.
doubt it matters, but i don’t think any 375s show well for champagne compared to their larger formats. magnums not even close.
Opened the '16 Dehu Benoit Brut Nature L’Orme on Friday. A deep golden color with very intense notes and spices. Very ripe apple, oaky and heavy on the autolytic notes, but also some orange spice. Took a moment (20 mins) to open. Came off full bodied and reminded me more of a Krug style. I wish I had more.
2008 Diebolt-Vallois Fleur de Passion
Blanc de blancs from 7-8 old vine (40-60+ years old) plots in Cramant (particularly Les Buzons), fermented & aged in barrel, malo blocked, 3-5g/l; big and forward and charming on the attack: a sort of honeyed, mature-tasting, oxidative quality that evokes Selosse’s blanc de blancs but in a more treble register and without quite the full breadth of layered complexity; then focused, driving acidity towards the finsh brings in every element to a sharp point, as if to assure you that there is nothing louche or dissipated about this, oh no; this really benefits from a couple of hours of air to help soften its edges and further delineate the flavors; bit of a heart attack moment when I see Envoyer has offered this for $380 (!!!) but at the price I paid ($150, over 3 years ago) this is a very worthy blanc de blancs; very good
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Thank you for the note, the first I’ve seen.
I have one of these on order (also a 750) so I’m very glad to hear it’s showing well.
Godmé Les Romaines Extra Brut 2008
100% Meunier. Raised in oak. No dosage, disgorgement, or other info. Not sure I’m a fan. Just opened. More about structure than fruit.
Second night—kind of bitter. Not friendly. No like.
The discussion here got me to try a bottle of the Jacquesson 745 last weekend. I really enjoyed the low-dosage style and mineral spiciness, but this had just a little too much of the bruised-apple oxidative thing going on for my personal preference. I wouldn’t turn down another glass. Seems a little expensive for what it is approaching a hundred bucks where I am.
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Thought I would ask again. TIA
High quality. Very high quality. And yet this was a slight miss for me. Really quite remarkably rich given the paucity of dosage and it just didn’t have the razor sharp acidity it needed to keep it in perfect balance. With a little more acid, this would be an absolute stunner. That is not to say I am not enjoying it. It has an amazing perfumed nose of lemon oil, a hint of tropical fruit, gobs of chalk and some bread dough. It isn’t flawed or unbalanced; it just lacks the requisite verve to take it to the next level. I have a bottle of Latitude I am anxious to try for comparison. I suspect many will love the softish style. I almost love it. Just can’t quite get there.
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I drank this too cold. It improved substantially as it warmed, though I stand by my original critique.
$80!?!?! This was available for $53 eighteen months ago. This needs to be in the Champagne price increase thread.
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Seattle. We pay 33-50% more for everything here. Wine, fast food, used cars, apartments, health insurance, you name it. If anyone was wondering why I was drinking so many Total Wine winery direct bullshit Champagnes…
I am in the same region. And for the very reason you mention, I buy all of my wines from out-of-state retailers. Even with shipping, I get better prices that way.
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I prefer the Latitude, which I think it a lovely bottle of wine. But while very good, I do not think they are “next level” wines. They aren’t priced as next level wines, though, and are very good. I paid less than that for Latitude in Dallas and my shop does few favors on pricing. Richness despite a paltry dosage applies to teh Lat as well, but it’s got some cut and I like the BdB profile a touch more.