2012 Heidsieck - love this wine. Opens up with the full bakery and then comes the golden orchard fruit. Hints of ginger, classic Heidsieck richness, dosage is nicely integrated and enough acid to keep things fresh.
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I may be doing this wine a disservice as I wasn’t able to fully focus and take a note, but I felt this was fine but nothing special. Do these show better with more age?
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I told my buddy to take a picture of the bottle as I was getting the glasses. This is what he came up with. Juvenile prankster… 
Champagne A. Bergère Les Clos
Disclaimer: We sell this.
Old vines from 1970, 100% Meunier and the base year is 2018. Some oak, no dosage, disgorged 12/2022.
There is no mistaken this for anything other than Meunier. All kinds of crunchy, almost unripe, apples. There is texture on the mid-palate bringing some volume to this but the finish is rather short and austere. This is a classic example of Brut Nature where dosage might have made this more approachable and given it broader appeal. I enjoyed the pure and lean aspect to this but it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
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Disclaimer: we sell this.
Larmandier-Bernier Rosé de Saignée
Wonderful deep salmon color on this. Wonderful nose full of ripe strawberries, roses and peonies. The palate is initially bursting with red berries and the chalkiness starts to appear on the mid-palate giving this some chew. It keeps going on a minerally assertive finish. Terrific juice.
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2013 Paul-Etienne Saint Germain Champagne Grand Cru Sublime St Germain
Opened by Bill who purchased this in Epernay. First time having a wine from this producer. 50% Chardonnay from the Cote de Blancs and 50% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Riems. Light straw color with fine bubbles. Notes of sweet cream and vanilla with a round and well-balanced finish. 93 points.
VM
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2013 Launois Special Club Brut. Tasty stuff but with only modest mousse. I expected a bit more.
Great name for a band.
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Billecart rose non vintage
Bottle ID 201245. Base year 2020, 4.7 g// dosage. Lots of info on Billecart my origin website.
Years ago this was a very nice rose that could be found at many restaurants at a reasonable price. Over time I became less enamored with it. Lately It seems to be trending upward. This bottle was a bit tight on day one but it definitely blossomed on day two. At $78 I would buy more. Very nice👍
Clouet’s Un Jour de 1911 can range from breathtaking to merely pleasant, and last night’s bottle fell into the latter camp. Several factors might explain the inconsistency. The house shares almost nothing about base vintages or disgorgement dates, so each bottle could come from a different release. Variability within a single disgorgement is possible too, and this bottle traveled from Washington to Florida to Michigan, so travel shock can’t be ruled out. Served straight from the fridge, it may also have been a bit too cold. I never dismiss personal influences either—mood, setting, what I’d eaten or drunk before, even the glassware.
Still, the wine paired well with dinner, striking a nice balance between freshness and early maturity. Generous notes of biscuit and ripe pear, followed by crisp apple, lemon zest, ginger, and a hint of coffee bean. What it lacked was the drive and energy of my best bottles, and an atypical bitterness lingered on the finish.
The cuvée is 100 percent Pinot Noir, aged at least six years on the lees in stainless steel and neutral oak, with dosage likely in the six-to-ten-gram-per-liter range. Unfortunately, there were no markings on the cork or label to identify the release.
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Thanks for this note. I’ve only had Clouet 1911 once, and it was interesting enough for me to try to seek it out elsewhere. These observations give me a lot of valuable perspective.
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I coincidentally popped a Clouet 1911 on Saturday.
The booklet says 2023 disgorgement.
I haven’t opened a bottle in almost 2 years and time definitely does these well. This was much more focused and has built more depth than the last one I opened. Creamy, lots of citrus, you feel the density of the Pinot on the palate it’s approaching a full bodied champagne. There’s plenty of acidity to not make it feel flabby. This is more towards the style that made me love the 1911 bottlings initially, but it’s still quite fresh and not teetering on that oxidative/solera style that I loved in the first couple bottles I had. Of course without disgorgement date of those they could’ve just been older.
Nonetheless, I’m going to continue to seek these out as I’m a sucker for Blanc de Noirs, especially like this.
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Champagne wine dinner last night with the usual suspects. No formal notes but the Jacquemart was still youthful and broad while the Maillons was coiled up and needs more time. The Ruinart was the most friendly champagne, maybe due to its higher dosage while the Prevost had typical Munier notes and slight oxidative style of the house. All wines showed well in its own way and were all a pleasure to drink.
1999 Ployez-Jacquemart Liesse D’Harbonville
2018 Ulysse Collin Les Maillons
2010 Dom Ruinart BdB
2012 Jerome Prevost Les Beguines
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Probably not all that much since these roll out when BS determines their Elizabeth Salmon is not high enough quality and will not likely age as they hope. Then they declassify and make “Le Rose” like they did in 2010 and 2015 when they think the juice is decent enough, but just not quite there.
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That’s good to know. Decent enough, but not quite there describes this one perfectly.
Another delicious bottle. This is, if not the best Champagne I own, certainly my favorite. It’s rich, round, dense, opulent, toasty, and layered, with marizpan, chocolate and tangerine notes. Electric acidity keeps it finessed and drives a long finish. I wish I could more consistently find the vintage offerings.
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To be fair to Bourgeois-Diaz I should record that my second bottle of this left a somewhat better impression, and perhaps emphasised to me the importance of pairing. I’d tried the first bottle stand-alone as an aperitif, and it really didn’t work. For the second of the bottles I purchased I decided to try it alongside some rather rustic, salty and robust Salers cheese. And today I’m quite enjoying it.
So whether that’s bottle variation, palate variation, or simply a case of getting the pairing right I’m not sure. But I’m less negative about this wine now.
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Extracted from a thread just posted: !0 wines, 8 tasted blind: 2006 Taittinger Comtes, 2006 Piper-Heidsieck, 2008 Garaudet Meursault, 2016 de Sales, 2019 Brander Merlot, 2005 Columbia Crest Merlot,1989 Le Gay; 2016 Oreno, 2006 Dolce, F Tokaji
2006 TAITTINGER COMTES de CHAMPAGNE BLANC de BLANC- poured blind to the others; I wanted to bring a decent champagne especially after I made the decision to bring a $10 Merlot and this bottle just barely made the grade to be “decent”; it’s rare that I ever get a bottle variation of this champagne/ vintage, but we had one here as it started off suggestive of being advanced with a yellow more gold color; the nose included toasty brioche, caramel, honey, bruised yellow apple, yellow peach, mango and dried apricot which continued on all the way through; thankfully, it was devoid of any butterscotch or almond notes, but it definitely was more mature than other recent bottles; later on, some white pepper notes appeared which was another atypical from any previous bottles of which I’ve had many; it had a nice smooth mouthfeel, but short of being creamy and a bit of acidity, but also less than usual. Once revealed, others chimed in with this not being the usual fine champagne it has been known to be.
2008 PIPER-HEIDSIECK CHAMPAGNE BRUT- blind; the color matched the yellow more gold of the 2006 Comtes and I’m thinking this may be advanced as well; once nosed, a musty, dusty component seemed to confirm it plus the notes of honey covered mature peach, apricot and nectarine with a caramel topping; as big as the fruit profile was, it was equally as big, rich and full bodied with a weighted texture.
Cheers,
Blake
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Question: my nephew has the opportunity to drink one of the following vintages of Dom Perignon 2006, 2002, or 1983. The fill level on the 1983 is a little low. Which vintage would provide the best drinking experience?
Thanks,
Does you nephew prefer fresh and lively champagne, mature and tetiary champage, or somewhere in the middle? I had a 2002 recently and it was still quite fresh with hints of maturity.
He is just starting out on his wine journey and probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Being a novice, which vintage would be best for someone who has never drank Dom?