2002 Ployez-Jacquemart Liesse d’Harbonville.
This bottle showed a bit more maturity than the last. Some tart green apple was still there, now layered with deeper, more mature apple notes, a touch of lemon, and hints of vanilla cream. A very slight oxidative character added depth without the wine feeling tired. There were also subtle red-fruited notes. Still lively and fantastic, just showing more of the expected evolution compared to the shockingly fresh bottle we had before
Hey Frank, the NZ importer of Vilmart was selling a boat load of the Vilmart Rubris and so he ordered a bunch of it. Then suddenly the buyers just dried up over night and he was left with a lot of unsold Rubris. I bought bottles in February of this year. Three were the 2013 disgorgement and one was the 2014.
Price is around US$50. I may need to get some more!
Here is the reply I got from Aurelien. It’s a confirmation of the premise we had put forth.
"For the artistic labels, this is because of idea of the blend (variety, or vintage or terroir ) compare to the others who are just from one plot, one variety, one vintage.
Effectively, Nature de craie could goes in both ranges! I feel that I prefer to have on the “artistic range” as this is more influence from vinification and chardonnay than from the vintage and the terroir."
Frank I thought you did a nice job of leading into Aurelian’s discussions about sites and wines, and I appreciated to some degree his discussion on dosage. It almost seemed to me he was suggesting that the dosage adds to complexity as his wines age, which is why his more expensive terroir driven wines are dosed, even if in that 2-5 extra brut range. I was honestly surprised to hear that, or maybe my interpretation was deeply biased and so I misconstrued his words, because they run out so many non-dose wines that in my opinion would be well served with a light dosage. In any event, a fun and informative presentation, and I was sad I had to hop off a bit early.
Some fun champagnes at the Kane house. For some background here, my oldest kid has had his birthday parties cancelled like three of the past four years for illness or weather. So in January, my wife agreed to get him concert tickets (and seats for 4 friends) to Kendrick Lamar at the ATT stadium in DFW. She was going to take him with one of her friends, but it eventually morphed to she and I would take the 5 teenage boys to then just me and could I find a friend. I bribed my buddy Jacob with promises of good champagne and a van with a driver and he said yes. So on Saturday I iced down some good stuff, ordered a bunch of pizzas, and we prepartied with:
2013 Louis Roederer Cristal - 60-40 pinot/chard, 8g/l, 32% vinified in oak. Nice golden color. Nose gives orange blossom, pear, hint of breadiness, some cool fruit notes. Palate just explodes with white cherry and pear and lemon curd, hint of yeasty richness. Acid is nice and the finish is long and clean. A really dynamic and immensely satisfying champagne. A classic. 97+ range for me. Excellent wine with no faults, no weaknesses.
2012 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne A totally different wine. Bottled at 9g/l and with a decade aging on lees. This is more brawny, and flexes a deeper apple, lemon, nutty rich pastry and leesy profile, also long and complex. The nose is fantastic with a broad array of orchard fruit, pastry, and a hint of spice. The acid is there to keep things lively, and it’s really a quite complex and interesting wine that brings rich chardonnay fun to the table. I think the 2013 Cristal is a slightly finer wine, but the 2012 Taittinger Comtes is a wonderful bottle of champagne. 95ish. Also excellent and a very fun comparison of two very different yet immensely pleasurable wines.
Concert kicked ass, and the Coors Original we had was nice and cold and very tasty.
John, thank you for taking the time to say that, I appreciate that very much.
With both sessions, I found Aurelien to be candid and his takes on some of the key topics to be refreshing. In Part 1, he offered some candor on farming and organics, which I appreciated–he was not as rigid about it as some others, and I thought he was more realistic about the topic yet still committed to it (which is why I buy so much of his wines). And in Part 2, concerning dosage, again there is intention for why he still maintains some in some of his wines.
But can I challenge you for a moment concerning his range…is your perception accurate about his quantity of cuvees he makes without dosage? The non-dose list would be the Blanc de Noirs and the Blanc de Blancs, plus the Nature de Craie. These are the only non-dose wines in his range, leaving 14 other wines with some dosage added. So in truth, doesn’t most of his range then have a light dosage added?
Sure, Frank. You’re right. It’s just under half of the lower end wine (colorful labels) that are bottled non-dose. Which is a smaller portion of the number of bottled offerings.
John, consider one other thing, too. Have you tried the Empreintes? This is in the artistic label part of the range, and it was the bottling he was drinking during the Zoom. That is the 50/50 Pinot/Chard cuvee. Of the several bottles (vintages) I have had of it over time, it is excellent. The 2013 is magic. The 2016 excellent too. And, like the Craie bottling, it is vintage (and labeled as vintage) but ends up in the artistic label part of the range. As I know that wine, it is anything but lower end. This is why (for me) separating the Laherte Freres range into quality segments isn’t how I see it.
Frank, I’ve had a good number of the Emprientes vintages, and am familiar with and have tried most if not all of the Laherte lines, with the exception of a couple of the Bruts which I’ve just not seen offered near me.
Here’s my note on the 13 Empreintes, a vintage in which I thought Laherte excelled:
2013 Laherte Freres Les Empreintes which is an extra brut bottled at 4g/L, equal parts chardonnay and pinot noir. This reminded me of a poor man’s 2008 Cristal in that the chard and pinot work together, the fruit is loaded with orange blossom, zippy lemon, a hint of peach and granny smith, with a little ginger, paired with zippy acidity. It’s not as complex or deep as the Cristal, but it’s also like 1/4 the price. We’re blowing through this stuff at an alarming rate. It is really good. A strong recommend and good QPR given the quality. In that 93-94 range. Mouthwatering.
Obviously I preferred Emprientes to Nature. Thought the Terroir wines were superior by a good margin with the exception of the 7, which is more interesting than exceptional to me. A fun wine to try, though. I think Aurelian is talented, so you don’t need to sell me on his wines. I just don’t like all of them, and like a number of folks on this thread, think that at times some of them can be a bit shrill.
I was once told by a waiter (or maybe sommelier?) that placing a bottle upside down in the ice bucket is supposed to signal that you didn’t like it. This was in response to me doing that, but to signal we were done with the bottle.
Has anyone else heard this, or did that staff member just want to embarrass me?
Graf, I don’t think so, as Petit Meslier has reserves behind it, so it actually fits into the intention to label it that way.
@K_John_Joseph you have tried the 2013, too. Cool comparison to draw there, too. I had not thought it like that. Hey John, forgive me if you perceive me as selling you on the wines…it’s not my intention with the posts. I think in the end one person’s shrill could be another’s racy/freshness.
It’s been a bit since I’ve done a champagne hike. Here is the return!
Rousseaux-Batteaux has done nothing but blow me away since trying them for a first time last year. This is the Les Grandes Voyettes which is 50/50 Pinot Noir/Chardonnay.
It poured a light lemon color. Right away, this is all about freshness as there isn’t much in the way of lees contact. There is a slight underripe quality that is more about tension. The nose leans heavy into tones of Green apples, peaches, stone fruit, a touch of green mango, fresh herbs, biscuits, Bosc pears, toast, and yellow flowers. The Medium bodied feel is deft and balanced with integrated, high acidity. This is just simply delicious.
