Over the past couple days in the mountains
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It never gets old. There’s an extremely low tide today. We’ll head that way (west) for a Clayton Beach hike.
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Charles Heidsieck Rosé Reserve - 8th bottle of the case and this one is quite good. Strawberries, cream, subtle nuttiness and other fun aged notes. A tad sweet, and tired bubbles - a touch more acidity would elevate this. No reason to let these age any longer, drink up and be prepared for bottle variation.
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Arrowhead?
Idyllwild. 
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2015 is a head-scratcher of a vintage, but that still doesn’t sound like a correct bottle.
It almost certainly is an off bottle, just not a specific flaw I can identify. Last Bubbles refunded my purchase with no fuss, thankfully.
The 2015 flaw!
Arrowhead was just as pretty this weekend. 
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Doh! I was on the wrong side!
2010 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé - France, Champagne (5/26/2024)
Disgorged in June 2022, using declassified cuvee Elisabeth Salmon fruit. 55% chard/45% PN, 3 g/L dosage. Drank over two days out of Glasvin champagne glasses. It poured a beautiful salmon color with very fine bubbles. Notes of pastry by strawberries and spice. Dark cherry flavors appeared on day two. Perfect medium plus acidity, moderate tannins and wonderfully pleasant minerality really shined. This is a stunner of a wine that is still a baby. I will do my damndest to let the remainder of my bottles hibernate for another five years, if I can somehow hide them and forget about them. (93 points)
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Charles Dufour, Bulles de Comptoir #7.
2016, 2010-2015 Reserve.
Tangerine, raspberry, red apple, ginger and cinnamon.
Being a little worried about some of the tasting notes that this had oxidized or not aged well, i was luckily wrong, and the color was just fine and the wine had a good tension. The wine itself is in the natural camp, and to a certain degree i could worry if this is the right starting point for a champagne to age due to the oxidation, but not being a fan of tradition, i somehow very much like what this is. With a bite of tuna and cleansing with ginger, the wine just sang along and made it such an experience. Very, very nice.
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- 2012 Jacques Lassaigne Champagne Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs Millésimé - France, Champagne (5/28/2024)
Disgorged November 2020. While there is virtually no back label info, the disgorgement data is stamped on the front label, along with a BdB reference and Brut Nature, so that gives me enough. This bottle started off yesterday very smoky, which I enjoyed. By today that note had mostly disappeared. Good concentration with flavors of lemon, apricot, pear and what Astrid called a sweet nectarine. Finished with a cleansing minerality (that seemed more saline-like yesterday). Drinking great and still with some structure finishing the wine. This is my last 2012, glad to have 2015s on the way.
Posted from CellarTracker
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This was absolutely brillant. Top notch all the way thru. Intense, deep powerful, long, balanced, precise. Served to some friends who are not serious about wine and both them went “wow that is amazing”.
Deeply impressive and yummy 
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Friends from out of state visited. We had a super low tide, so I took them to Clayton beach.
At dinner, I brought a 2006 Taittinger Comtes. This has been a personal favorite since release. However, last night’s bottle wasn’t quite to the level of most of my previous ones (and there have been many). Perhaps it’s bottle variation which others have described, although I generally haven’t subscribed to that phenomenon for this wine. My impression what that as this has aged, it has softened slightly as champagnes often do. This has never been a wine that needed to become more supple. It still has that beautiful Comtes mouthfeel, density and flavors, but this bottle lacked some of the energy that made most of my previous bottles truly exceptional. I’ll open another bottle soon to see if this was a one-off.
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I’ve been wanting to try this producer; sounds like they’re appropriately on my radar. Thanks for the note, Frank! 
Glad you had such a good bottle. I’ve always enjoyed the BdB Vignes de Montgueux and bought several of the 2013 Millesime for $130. I found it really good in the $70 range. Bad luck? Bad tastes? Speaking of bad tastes, I also have that green towel hanging on your oven. 
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I’ve had this maybe 3 times in the past 6 months and it’s consistently been fantastic. I’ve been all in on Cedric Bouchard lately and it seems for good reason.
The note:
3rd bottle in last 6 months, again stunning with beautful citrus and toast on the nose with weightless transparency and a super long finish. Love this wine.
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Warren, I’ve found a few bottles that have deviated as yours did, but not many and the last ones have been a slightly mature, excellent version of all those gems before them. Maybe batch differences are also at play here as I, as I think you did too, bought many cases upon release and still have a few left.
Cheers
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Double posted in Wine Talk:
Three couples enjoyed a wonderful, sunny Memorial Day brunch held at one’s Country Club. The occasion also served to celebrate our dear friend who is relocating out of state and we figured the best way to compliment that was to pour and toast with champagne.
We started off with an unknown that prepared us righteously for the brunch/ celebration:
2015 MICHEL ARNOULD MEMORIE de VIGNES BLANC de NOIR GRAND CRU BRUT VERZENAY- this bottle was one of only 240 to make it to the US and it came from a very limited production made from 60+ year old vines; it had a medium yellow color and pleasant aromas of orange blossoms, minerals and ginger which continued on to be joined by sweet red apple and a hint of citrus at the end, it was medium bodied, had a nice smooth mouthfeel and finished impressively with everything coming together and holding for a grand finale.
1999 LOUIS ROEDERER CRISTAL BRUT- 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay; sporting a bright yellow color, this initially offered some advance notes in the nose that I would have expected would have been expressed with a darker, gold color; it had butterscotch, caramel, super ripe golden delicious apple and yellow peach, accented by ginger, orange zest and hazelnut; the taste profile emulated the aromatics until after about 30 minutes after it had slowly morphed into a different bubbly with mature stone fruit, orange zest and golden delicious apple being more prominent; it was super smooth and creamy and seemed to get better with more time in the glass; it was rich, full bodied and subtly powerful; in short time, it went from being pretty good to really excellent.
2008 LAURENT-PERRIER BRUT MILLESIME in magnum- 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir; dosed at 8 gpl; I had taken a 750 of this champagne to a recent blind wine tasting dinner both the other guys is a part of and it was so atypically weak and fragile compared to many wonderful bottles before that; all of those bottles had elegance and finesse even though this comes from a vintage that is known for complexity and power; although this was in a magnum format, it resembled the previous 750 ml bottles having really nice bright acidity with a super delicious fruit profile of lemon zest, lime, apple and pear fruit, a tactile pleasing creamy mousse and a palate cleansing finish, but the operative word here is still ELEGANCE.
Table comments included all liking each champagne, the ’08 L-P being the shining star. I loved it and yet when compared to this mature Cristal, the oldster won out for me.
Cheers and all the best to a special person,
Blake
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