Paul Gosset Autumn, Rose, all 2018 Pinot from Ay, maceration, 5g/L, 837 bottles.
Unlike the sulkier Summer this is all bright fruits and Eton mess, very vibrant and easy, no tannins. Brilliant summer wine, but Autumn.
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Looking back at my Cellartracker notes on this wine, I was paying $40 US for these in 2013. It’s 10 years later, and I paid $42 for this a few weeks ago. Wuh? OK, so it’s $2 more, and in these times, that’s a pretty insignificant increase given all that is going on with Champagne. But what makes this even more astonishing is what this wine shows for that price. My note can tell the story but for someone wanting to experiment into Champagne, to get a sense of what Champagne can be, this would be a no doubt recommendation. Certainly going for more in my next order of local Champagne…wow.
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NV Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grande Réserve - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru (6/26/2023)
JUne 2021 disgorgement. This is the Pinot dominant non-Rose cuvee, with 70& Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay (which is the inverse of teh Chard dominant Grand Cellier). Given the way Vilmart builds this cuvee (like Grand Cellier), this should be base of 2016 - 2018, with 3 years on the lees. Opened this yesterday. If my read of the wine is accurate, the Pinot Noir is giving this a good spine--It's very perceptible as it hugs the wine and carries the fruit very well. With the fruit, a tangy blackberry, a purple savory fruit that mixes with a yellow apple, then the citrusy lime and orange flesh that Vilmart brings through so well with just about everything the house makes. Finishes a little spicy, with a light minerality. Fresh and juicy, let's keep in mind that this is $42 US locally. Crazy I skipped buying this for so many years but I am gonna fix that, fo sho. Winner, baby.
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And if you can hang on to some and put some age on them…they are AMAZING! I just have a hard time keeping my hands off at that price point and end up sucking them down too quick!
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NV Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grande Réserve - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru (5/3/2021)
My oldest Vilmart GR…70% Pinot, 30% Chard, DG 9/2014 I believe 2011/12 vintages…the age has done wonders here, as this wine is SO elegant and in total max enjoyment mode! Gorgeously pure apple/cherry/candied pear fruits…creamed up nicely with a little almond liqueur mousse and cherry cordial candies…crisp and tart with super bright lemon, ginger, cherry skin…fine tiny popping bubble dance on the palate…leesy mousse calms…showing wonderful harmony and grace…plenty salty crushed geology tames the sweetness…the little bit of age on this has propelled this wine into levels WAY above its price point. Lesson learned…age these suckers out a few years! Great wine! (94 pts.)
Posted from CellarTracker
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This is a post to make zero people jealous but purely out of boredom. This isn’t even champagne. Headed out on vacation yesterday and by today I have a group of kids, spouse and a dog not feeling well. After getting plenty of fluids in to everyone and off to bed I see a wine shop is within 500 ft of our VRBO. Not many options
Lots of apple and lemon here but an aftertaste of more or the same. ( Need a drink of water between sips. )This is mimosa/ spritz juice.
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Never had this and called up my favorite local wine shop to see if they had it. They are selling it for $83. I am not sure why Champagne is so expensive in Seattle, relative to Oregon and California, but it’s starting to piss me off.
@B_Buzzini You know that bottle you posted there was 7 years previous to my disgorgement. You take great patience with things, which I admire. Holding a NV cuvee like that for part/all of that time is pretty remarkable. Great work there.
@scottkieser $83 is an example of the pricing ranges that are out there. You’ll find the same thing with the Grand Cellier and Cuvee Rubis. It pays to look and I don’t blame you for feeling that way. Uncertain of your desire to have things shipped, but if you are open to it, you can move some of the bottles for $42 from down here up the coast to you, and still be way under that local # you were told. Hell, you can put both the Grand Reserve and Grand Cellier in the same shipper and try them both if you had the interest (assuming which may be wrong that you have not had the latter recently…). If you need help, PM me and I can fill you in.
WHWC? They are on my radar. I am sure I will be ordering in the not too distant future. I am just annoyed that I have to order a case at a time to get a decent price.
Sometimes the setting beats the juice. My most recent bottle of bubbles was NV Chandon at the Omni PGA north of Frisco in DFW for a law firm retreat. Affirmatively not good sparkling wine, but relaxing after a good round of golf, a successful cash game at the par-3 course and my wife joining me for a couple hours of just sitting around in the cool AC recovering and chatting before going down to the dinner events made it just fine. Not every bottle needs to even be good. Sometimes the setting and company are enough.
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Different strokes for different folks.
I’m skipping most of my normal buys where 2018 is the base, and testing the water for 2019s before buying. They may not be off vintages, but they are too forward for my taste and lack acidity(for my palate). 2015s are enjoyable, but I am mostly buying bottles over cases for the same reason (LB Terre de Vertus being an exception).
I like 2012, 2013, and 2014. As well as a number of wines with 2017 base (Doyard for sure). 2016 has ripping acidity and I stashed my Agrapart, which is not my normal MO, but I would put it into vintages that I am definitely looking to buy.
Ugh…a very good thing he doesn’t move markets. That list includes almost every one of my favorite houses.
I just bought a decent bit of 2016 Agrapart and am similarly hiding this stuff away from my drinkers to give it a few years in bottle.
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Something to consider, but Brut Zero and Non-dosage labeling have become marketing tools as well as winemaking choices.
As we began to prepare for producing sparkling wines, I began getting lab work done on champagnes we drank at home. I was surprised to see a number of the wines coming in with little or no dosage (not a majority by any stretch) that weren’t labeled as Brut zero. They were often quite well balanced, and delicious. While I find more Brut zero wines fit my palate than used to, across the board the ones labeled as such seem to have a more aggressive acid profile.
Marcus, am I reading you right here…are you enjoying the 2015 Larmandier-Bernier Terre de Vertus? I’ve had it a few times and to me it’s not showing like I know the wine can in other years. Example, the 2014, which we had a mag of a few weeks ago, that wine was fantastic. The zero dose was not in play, and I really enjoyed it. Yet, with the 2015, the wine is just pretty coiled and doesn’t offer a lot of fruit imprint. And I was just offered the 2016 Terre de Vertus and bought a handful as I expect it to show well from 2016, yet with 2015, even with bottles of it out there still for sale at a good price, I am done opening those and decided not to restock it.
I haven’t had a 2015 yet that was really my style. I bought 6 of the LB Terre de Vertus because, while being a bigger wine, it was still a very good wine. I’m not buying more of it, and very much prefer the 2016 TdV that we had a couple of weeks ago. But I like L-B a lot as a producer and try to buy a bit every year.
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Oh, so you had the 2016 TdV? How was the fruit on that showing? The 15, even for me, seems like more bones than flesh.
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Yes, WHWC. And I understand the shipping situation. I try very hard to manage that down in terms of cost when I can (such as a few of us splitting a case, to help chop the shipping up). They’re about 80 miles from my house but if I left now, it would take me over 2 hours to get there. And it’s like that a lot from here so we just have the bottles shipped down the freeway (jamway is more accurate).
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This wine continues to BLOW ME AWAY! Very short list as my all time favorite Champagne…and it’s not even of the classic varietal! Such uniqueness in flavors and feel…my original note is still spot on…yet this bottle is showing more mouth coating pillow soft and leesy mousse than before…the lemon and tangerine squeeze is electrifying…like a 20 piece band at full throttle! Such exotics of tropical/orchard fruits in perfect ripeness and pucker…viscous of evoo drizzled on toast, sprinkled with sea salt minerality…fresh flowers and honey…SO fresh and mesmerizing I can’t stand it! Too bad these are pretty much unattainable now. Just WOW…
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A generously styled BdB. The extended sur lie aging shows on this; the yeasty brioche is in the forefront. It is more forward than most of my other 2008’s are at this point in time, but shows the typical acidity of the vintage. Creamy rich and toasty. I liked it a lot, and the price is right.
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Mailly Blanc de Pinot Noir:
Very good showing tonight. Seems to be moving toward a more mature profile with almond, smoke, and coffee notes sharing the limelight with the still forward red berry fruits. I love this stage in a wine, and I only rarely catch them at this best of both worlds moment. I wish Mailly would instruct Total Wine to include disgorgement dates, as they apparently include that info on bottles sold outside the USA. I have written them and asked they make this demand of Saranty imports. I am sure they will get right on it.
I can’t help but think of this wine in the context of the inadvertent firestorm I set off a few days ago. This has a dosage of 8 grams per liter, and is most definitely a more generously styled Champagne, but it’s fruity rather than sweet, and still has a crisp finish with plenty of chalk to keep it in check. I can’t fathom someone drinking this and saying it’s too much. That is not a critique of differing palates, I just don’t get it.
I love my Mailly branded Riedels, by the way. Champagne really seems to sing in them. They look to be the Vinum series, which is hard to believe, as they are selling for $67 a pair on Amazon. The L’Intemporelle gift set they came in only added $10 to the cost of the bottle.
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it got lost behind all the Screagle.