I was not expecting the L’Ouverture to be so open, as I have had similair experiences as you have. However Savart has in the meantime being doing a lot to improve and although I do not want to use the word, oxidative due to how this will be interpretated. One felt similair to Agrapart, he is starting to master the shorter times on the lees to produce a more open style of champagne.
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I'm visiting my mom in Boca Raton, and purchased this yesterday afternoon and carried it to dinner. I've always liked this grower and this cuvée. A Santa Claus wine; robust, friendly and cheerful. It paired effortlessly with everything on the table. This was the April 2022 disgorgement. I'm guessing from the back label code it's a 2017 base.
From the producer’s website:
41% Chardonnay
43% Pinot Noir
16% Mailly Grand Cru red wines
4 g/L
“Extra-Brut Rosé is only produced in very good quality years for the black
grape varieties. Ployez-Jacquemart red wines are made in oak barrels, revealing an
elegant, slightly woody touch.”
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I always appreciate your write-ups and accompanyng photos Warren. You have mastered short and concise and yet accurate descriptions of wines, a trait I have yet to achieve, and enough that I can judge as to how close the wine comes to my palate preferences. Grateful.
Thanks for that, @Blake_Brown. Unfortunately, I’m still prone to posting verbose, incongruous notes as well 
. I’ve recently tried to hide non-wine photos to make them optional, avoiding distracting or annoying those uninterested.
I love your notes and photos. Your joie de vivre is evident in your posts.
Cheers,
Warren
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Ain’t nothing wrong with that in my book. Good prose is a lost art and one of the reasons why I enjoy this board!
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2015 De Saint-Gall Le blanc de blancs:
The last bottle of this was pretty boring until I got halfway through the bottle, at which point it completely changed character. I thought I would solve that dilemma by pouring 5 ounces into my perpetual reserve cooking solera and leaving the rest of the bottle open for two hours while I went on an afternoon hike. When I poured my first glass for drinking 2.5 hours later, it was entirely unchanged. It showed mostly apple, lots of flint, and a bit of toast. Once again, boring. It continued to show that way until I got down to the last five ounces or so, at which point it showed a lot of mid-palate richness, cinnamon, lemon curd, and finished with orange and grapefruit. I started to get excited about it just as I was polishing off the bottle. Frustrating, but maybe my next two will show better.
Incidentally, this bottle did show some of the purported green characteristics of the 2015 vintage, which I didn’t notice last time. I didn’t find it objectionable at all. I don’t think I have tasted any other 2015 wines, however, and am not sure how intense this characteristic can get.
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And again with thanks for the recommendations, this evening a Shaman 18 blanc(-ish). Not as immediately appealing to my palate as the rosé, but it grew on me with some air time.
My TN here
- NV Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Shaman 18 - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru (03/09/2023)
75/25 PN/C; tirage 13/7/2019; disgorgement 11/2021, zero dosage.
The colour is one of the deepest yellows I've ever seen on a relatively young champagne.
On first opening I found this very unapproachable, with over-powering intensity of what I believe to be oak from the long time in small barrels, as well as a quite aggressive mousse.
After 30-45 minutes it settles down a bit. The nose is complex: herbal, some intensely perfumed flowers, perhaps a note like rich cider. The palate follows the nose, with also just a hint of cream; crisp, clean, complex, oaked. The finish is moderately long and slightly "woody" (in a not unpleasant way).
Overall this is clearly a food wine to be sipped and savoured, not chugged. It is interesting, complex, but the influence of the oak is perhaps a little greater than I personally prefer in my champagne. Nevertheless it is clearly an excellent example of that style. (91 points)
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Made that experience many times… slow-ox hardly changes young wines. We even did experiments with identical bottles which showed that the 24h slow-ox bottle is identical to the freshly opened one (both muted and closed). Then we decanted the freshly open for just 45 minutes and it changed completely. I decant young champagne that is closed into a Champagne decanter these days.
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Visiting my Mom in Boca Raton. I stopped at Wine Wave in Delray and picked this and a Ployez Jacquemart rosé to carry to a couple of dinners.
I generally prefer extra brut with a little dosage to non-dosage wines. The 2008 Guy Larmandier Champagne Signé François Vieilles Vignes BdB was an exception; an outstanding brut nature. When I saw this NV Cramant on the store shelf, I decided to give it a try.
Bitter grapefruit, green apple, scant brioche and a little mineral. Very crisp and tart. Much better as it warmed; I wholeheartedly agree with @Frank_Murray_III that brut nature wines are best served closer to cellar temperature than refrigerator temperature. While I liked it especially as it warmed, and it paired well with our meal, I couldn't help feeling that to my taste, it would have been better with a low dosage rather than none. It might have rounded its sharp edges and balanced things out.
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The day came and I opened this Pierre Péters L’Etonnant Monsieur Victor MK.09!
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2009 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru L'Etonnant Monsieur Victor - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru (01-09-2023)
This is really the cream of the crop from Pierre Péters...
Pure Chardonnay - 50% Les Chétillons from 2009 and then 50% from the special Perpetual Reserve started in 1988 including vintages like 1990, 1993 and 1996!
This has then spent 6 years on the lees under natural before being disgorged in December 2015 with an Extra Brut dosage.
The nose was just stunning. It has this textbook character from Perpetual Reserves with this insane depth, complexity, weight and maturity while also being fresh and lively.
Very oxidative. Pickled lemon, lemon custard, bruised apple, walnut, brioche, yeast, candied ginger, baking spices, earth and sea breeze.
The palate had so much power, weight and creaminess but it's followed by this wave of acidity, insane minerality and elegance.
Green apple, bruised apple, pickled lemon, lemon zest, overripe melon, butter, brioche, walnut, candied ginger, salty brine, chalk and toffee.
During the bottle the best comparison I kept falling back on was the oxidation, depth and structure of a Selosse lieu-dit mixed together with the freshness, elegance and minerality of Salon...
The balancing of all these elements together were just other-worldly and every sniff and sip were just magical. (98 points)
Posted from CellarTracker
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Pierre Legras Coste Beert 100% Chardonnay, Chouilly Grand Cru Base 2020. Degorgment 10/22/l Dosage 6g/l
A beautiful representative of Chouilly, linear, pure zesty lime, a champagne where one imagines one tastes the chalk. Sharp acidity. A great persisitent finish. 92 points. I find it interesting that Legras and Guiborat are best friends and both consider the other the better producer. In considering Legras, the contrast between ten hectares and Guiborat’s three hectares is evident in the pricing. Confusing price with quality in Champagne is a significant error.
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De Saint-Gall Orpale 2008:
I continue to be impressed by this wine. It would benefit from a bit more bottle age, as the acidity is a bit painful (though not every bottle has been this acidic), but it has opulence and complexity in spades. Orange, grapefruit, pineapple, smoke, flint, buttered toast, salt, butterscotch, lemon curd, ginger, and chocolate. Full bodied and long. A very different expression of top blanc de blancs from the Franck Bonville Les Belle Voyes I drank last weekend.
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@scottkieser
I think I’ve seen you post several positive notes on this wine. I skipped the ‘08. I had a couple of ‘02s a while ago, but my notes say “nice enough, but not at the level of other tête de cuvées”. IIRC, Saint Gall is a cooperative, and this is their top wine. When I look back on TN’s for the ‘02, it seems my opinion was a minority, so maybe I should give them another chance.
Thanks for posting,
Warren
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I have zero experience with the top tete de cuvées, so you may absolutely be right. This is a 1/3 of the price, however.
I have been buying this whenever Total Wine sends me a 20% off coupon, which brings the cost to $105. Grand Vin Wine Merchants has it at $92. WHWC at $89.99 on pre-arrival for january.
I payed $70 from Envoyer for the '02 Orpale in 2018. They offered the '08 for $90 early last year. I took one with the intention of cellaring it for some time.
I drank my '02 in 2020 and found it pretty good. I thought it was more Burgundian geeky than opulent but nice fruit, possibly benefitting from more age. I’m in no rush with my '08. Especially if it’s north of $100 in the market.
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I have a few magnums of 2008 Orpale and a couple of magnums of 2004.
I’ll patiently wait at least another decade on the 2008, but hopefully be able to begin enjoying the 2004s “soon”.
2012 Orpale is being released this month from de Saint-Gall.
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Have you had the ‘98? Total Wine has it in stock and I am debating getting a bottle for comparison.
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No, sorry, I have no idea how it is.
I’m curious how the 2012 turns out, but I’m looking forward to how the 2013 will be (providing they made one).
I guess then that I am fortunate this evening to be enjoying a L’Atavique from the 2015 base, disgorged in 2018, and enjoying it.
My TN here
- NV Mouzon-Leroux & Fils Champagne Grand Cru L'Atavique Tradition - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru (05/09/2023)
60/40 PN/C. 60% from 2015, 40% reserve wine from 2013/14. Disgorged October 2018, dosage 1.5g/l.
Bright straw gold in colour. Fine mousse.
After a little air, the nose offers honey, but also a minerally note.
On the palate, bruised apple, again that just slightly sweet hint of honey, and a finish which is long, starting with candied lemon and ending on a crisp, slightly saline note.
Overall this is an interesting and quite complex wine - a sipper not a chugger, and good with food (some cheese is bringing out various flavour notes for me).
At the ~US$47 that I paid this is OK, albeit not stunning, QPR.
But note that I understand from experts over at WineBeserkers that the style of this wine changed around 2020, so more recent bottles may be rather different. (91 points)
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Dalys Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru:
This was a $32 bottle I necessarily gambled on for the purpose of balancing out the price of a couple of $100 bottles. And if I may plagiarize a Woody Allen joke about poverty: “I should have finished college. I was in the black studies program. By now I could have been black.”
At any rate, I allowed myself some small level of optimism about this bottle, since the two scores on Cellar Tracker were 94 and 92 points, and the Vivino average was just under four. Alas, it had a high dosage and tasted like a Sprite or a Mountain Dew. I suffered theough half the bottle and put it back in the fridge. It’s a little better balanced today, and has a pleasant french bread note on the finish, but it still drinks mostly like a Sprite or a $12 Mosel Qba. Even in the minefield that is the bottom shelf of Total Wine’s Champagne selection, there are better options.
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