Yep, with you on that, Astrid. My own tolerance for even a glass of high octane red has long left my will to drink it anymore. My group does a few flights of reds once a month and I enjoy that, but that is the extent of it for me now.
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2014 Françoise Bedel Champagne Entre Ciel et Terre - France, Champagne (3/15/2023)
50% Meunier, 30% Pinot noir and 20% Chardonnay, disgorged October 2019. Very aromatic, loads of fruit and brioche. Initially there’s some grapefruit citrus up front overlaying the more expected Meunier orchard fruit flavors. The citrus moves further back in the mouth, creating a nice, well balanced champagne. Given the price I paid, this is a solid value.
Posted from CellarTracker
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I would say reds for myself.
I’ve never heard of them; could you please elaborate on your own experiences with Vincey
Vincy is an eight generation winery, who in the past sold to the cooperative, the new generation are making their own champagnes and are gradually exiting the cooperative. Vincey went biodynamic in 2018, they have done a lot to improve the vineyards etc. Also in the cellar big changes , everything is done by gravity, from press to barrel, no punch downs. The wines are not fined or filtered and remain on the lees until tirage.
The second fermentation is under cork, on average for 3 to 5 years. 2014 they did 4000 bottles, now they are up to 15000 bottles.
They have two single vineyards in Mesnil-sur-Oger Auge and Chemin de Chalons. Both are Massal selection.
There is minimum use of sulphur and no dosage, they are going for full maturity of the grapes.
With the warmer vintages 2015 onwards they have made great strides in quality as I think there is a better understanding of maturity/non dosage.
I have to be careful here, it is not a style of champagne that speaks personallyto me but I sell and have to make a living. In terms of oak kissed champagne they are really good and they have a clear signature. Our staunchest Ulysse Collin buyers in the past are all buyers of these champagnes.
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'99 Cristal Vinotheque at Claude last night with a fellow Berserker and it was good, not great. Seemed sweeter and more advanced than the original release. Lots of ripe yellow fruits and even dark chocolate as noted by my dining companion. Btw, the food was killer, again.
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Slumming it tonight with a cheapo bottle. This house is purported to be the second oldest house in Champagne, and as I ponder that fact while I sip this, I can’t help but think of the coach in Bull Durham, looking at his 8-16 record and wondering, “How the hell did we win eight?” It’s a miracle.
This was only disgorged six months ago. I have no doubt it will shed it’s neutral skin in 12-18 months, gain a little weight and give a little more pleasure, but even as a case throw in to bring the average price per bottle down, this is pretty weak. At least I had an occasion to dust off my forgotten flutes.
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Ambivalent. Nice nose: fruity, chalky. Decent palate with some fruit but an evolved profile showing leather. It just lacked verve. It seemed slightly tired. The food really helped though: dried cured and slightly smoked red tuna and “salicorne”. It brought the best out of this but without food, I was not charmed.
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Hadn’t opened one of these in about 3 years. Initial attack is still quite intense but softens nicely with air and swirling. Mouthfeel is rich and lasting but with plenty of cut. Delicate red berries and apple. Even if my cellar trends towards chard based or blends, there’s lots of reasons to buy non chard-based champagne. This is drinking really well right now. No obvious holes I can detect.
I think,it’s just Bonville. I’m, like, nearly 20 years trying. Incidentally, just some weeks ago, I did this side-by-side of Pur Mesnil Pur Avize Pur Oger. Very good wines, can’t fault them for anything in particular. A lot to be said for them. But just not really that exciting.
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This, on the other hand, never fails to please on a totally random early spring afternoon in Brussels.
shockingly good. So good with red fruits—raspberries and strawberries and beautiful salmon color—that I had to open a second bottle.
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1971 Piper-Heidsieck ‘Hors-Serie’ Millesime
Disgorged in February 2021, dosage 10g/L. Bottle #1342 of 2021.
I got 4 bottles of this in November, and last night I had a few guests and I popped the first bottle of this. It was quite a novelty. I’ve never had any champagne >30 years old, let alone nearly 50 years old, so I didn’t have any baseline expectations.
It was noticeably “golden” in the glass. The nose is very complex like Parmesan cheese rind, yeast, briny sea water and funkier tropical fruits; I kept smelling it over and over because I couldn’t quite place all of it (something familiar but no one could really articulate what it was, other than “cheese”). The very first taste is acidic and tart and syrupy; I was perceiving it as jammy / tropical fruit notes like passion fruit, plus honey. But within an instant it goes to salty / umami / fermenty notes, kind of getting a salty / hard cheese finish. At >50 years old, the bubbles are mostly dissipated and not really noticeable when drinking. Ultimately, this had a lot of complexity.
This is something that gives you a lot of different strong flavors in your mouth with each sip, so it’s not something that you could just pour down easily and fast. It’s also not something I’d want very often. But I found it very interesting to try as a quirky / oddball experience.
It was polarizing because anyone who prefers light / elegant / fresh / understated champagnes might still enjoy something with a bit of age, but this one is very very far away from that.
The packaging is quite large for one bottle.
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Durdon-Bouval, Rose Extra Brut Champagne NV
Vallée de la Marne, and certified organic since 2013. 6.88 hectares.
6g/L dosage, 2 years sur lees, 60%PN, 20%PM, 20% Chard, from 40-year old vines. No disgorgement date that I could determine.
Medium-fine mousse, substantial bubbles, nice salmon-pink color. A lot of raspberry and ripe strawberry and something resembling cinnamon on the finish. Comes across as round & lower acidity to me. I think this would be a crowd-pleaser and could be served with or without food.
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Benoit Dehu ‘Initiation’ 
2014 Larmandier-Bernier Champagne Premier Cru Terre de Vertus Zero dose, it paired nicely with grilled rabbit and parsnips. Incredibly fine mousse. Actually nicely balanced with no shrillness about it. With deference to @D_Pennet, I found nothing in this bottle to suggest 2014 was a poor year. And with a nod to @Sarah_Kirschbaum, I did detect a certain ginger heat, but I had to go looking for it. One thing that surprised me was that despite being zero dose, it still had a hint of RS to it apparently just from the fruit, supporting the argument that dosage is not the end of the story regarding the level of sweetness. We enjoyed it, but not enough to actively seek out again.
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NV Laherte Frères Champagne Extra Brut Ultradition - France, Champagne (19/03/2023)
60/30/10 PM/C/PN, 40% from reserve wines. 6 months sur lies, disgorged 11/2020; dosage 4.5g/l
This is rather nice. Yeasty notes on the nose, with a touch of minerality, perhaps a hint of meadow flowers. On the palate yeasty brioche is to the fore initially with a slightly tart bite of unripe apple, this leads to a crisp, cleansing mid-palate of apple and citrus, then a quite long finish which is slightly mouth-puckering but rather more-ish with notes of sour lime and a little of that yeastiness returning.
EDIT: with 60 minutes air this has evolved quite a lot; now the tartness of the entry and, particularly, the exit have smoothed out quite a lot and the overall mouthfeel is somewhat rounder, with a lot more earthy apple and a lot less puckering.
At the ~US$45 that I paid this is decent, but not great, QPR for me. (91 points)
In consideration of the lack of enthusiasm in your tasting note for this champagne andthe vintage involved confirms what I feel about 2014.
Non-Vintage is an unhappy word, I feel vintages like 2014 have great value in blends and vin perpetuelles. Dehours made the right decision to start vin perpetuelles post 2013 to uphold consistency. For his La Croix Joli which is a blend of 2013,2014 and 2015 is at another level and the comparisons to Selosse are justified.
Pierre Legras new Monographie which is also a blend of the above named vintages is a fantastic champagne.
My problem with 2014 is quite honestly the price, 70 -80 € for a bottle of champagne which does not perform may not bother many here but for me I feel for such a price tag, I want something which elicits a bit more excitement.
In this regard, we are entirely in agreement. I thought it was very good, but not on the level I was hoping for. I will say that it was enormously better than the 2014 Marguet we recently discussed. Beyond the vintage, they had nothing in common.
Tsarine Cuvee Orium Extra Brut:
This was a really nice bottle. Feels quite round in the mouth with a smooth, somewhat creamy texture and intense citrus fruit flavors. Electric mouthwatering back end acidity and a long finish full of chalk and bread dough. Elegant, refreshing, and fun. Wish I had bought more than one.
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