I’m convinced these wines should be more expensive than they are
NV Charles de Cazanove Champagne Romance Extra Brut
Purchased at Costco for $30. A blend of 50% Pinot Meunier, 40% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay. 5 g/l dosage. Clear white color. A very clean and fresh wine. Moderate bead. Notes of pear and almonds. 88 points.
VM
It was definitely my favorite of the night (though the general consensus leaned towards the Savart). This was bottled in August 2022 & disgorged November 2024.
Yellow apple. Apricot. Lychee. Starfruit. A little bit of coconut, brown sugar & custard – you can taste the reserve in this but it’s incredibly well balanced.
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Birthday celebration with dear friends. My better half loves her champagne. Friends love wine but aren’t nerds. Birthday girl wanted to do a tasting/comparison accompanied by charcuterie and beautiful weather. 3 sets of side-by-side comparisons to give people a feel of different varietals, vineyards, and styles. Was also an opportunity to show them you don’t have to pay $$$ for excellent Champagne. Finale was a magnum of 1989 José Michel.
Pair 1: Chardonnay vs Pinot Noir.
Diebolt-Vallois Cuvée Prestige Blanc de Blancs – lemon curd, white flowers, fresh croissant. The sharpest suit in the room and everybody agrees it’s drop dead gorgeous.
Paul Dethune Grand Cru Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut– Red apple, cream, toasted spice. If this wine were a garment, it’d be a cashmere sport coat.
Pair 2: Purity vs Blending
Laherte Frères Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature – Lemon zest and acerbic chalk. As if someone honed a fine edge on a limestone knife.
Laherte Frères Extra Brut Ultradition – plump baked apple, brioche, fall spice. Who says Meunier is JV juice???
Pair 3: Rosé vs Rosé
Pierre Moncuit Rosé Henriette– White cherry, chalk, fresh baked sourdough, and those organic strawberries from Costo that taste like candy. Le Mesnil at heart, with a touch of Ambonnay lipstick.
José Michel Brut Premices Rosé– Raspberry, blackcurrant, rose petal, baking spice. Less intellectual than Moncuit, but gregarious, nonetheless.
The Finale: José Michel & Fils 1989 Collection
I had a very hard time finding any information on this other than being told it was disgorged in 2015. I presume it’s a Pinot Meunier dominant blend. 1989 was a warm year and a bumper harvest. Many formal notes of wines from 1988-1990 vintages indicate 1989 was not long lived. My hopes were tempered, but with a magnum and 25ish years on lees, you never know…
Nose: honeycomb, toasted hazelnut, dried apricot, fresh baked brioche, peach cobbler
Palate: deep, layered, astonishing freshness, creamy mousse, endless finish
I have not had many champagnes more than 25 yrs old but this was quite extraordinary. Complete and still full of life. By the end of the night, a few of the bottles had a bit of wine left. The 1989 did not. Profoundly enjoyed by all.
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Nov 2014 disgorgement, 52 months on lees. These just get better and better. I panicked that we had more than we’d ever drink, and sold some. Now I am regretting it!
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I did!
I bought 8 bottles in the single white gift box form in 2024 when it was first released, and then another 3 from the small release in March 2025 that had a 3-pack in a wooden box.
I’ve popped 3 bottles, each of them I consumed over multiple sittings with a sparkling Coravin preserving in between.
- The first initially had an unpromising nose that I associated with extremely oxidized champagne, but that burned off after a few hours, and then it was extremely enjoyable.
- The second bottle was great. It was like the first but without the initial weird nose.
- The third bottle was different. It didn’t have the initial funk either, but never seemed to open up… it always seemed to be muted and unremarkable.
If the rest are like the first and the second, I’ll be super happy.
What I wrote on CellarTracker:
For a 30 year old champagne, this feels very bright and full of life, not oxidative at all.
The 96 vintage gives nice acidity, and the carbonation has mellowed and integrated into gentle mousse with a creamy texture.
The most interesting part for me is how the primary fruit notes have evolved to present very strong tropical fruit flavors like pineapple and mango but have not evolved so far that they are like raisins and dried out fruits.
The flavor profile feels quite special (something that requires aging time) but also wouldn’t be off-putting to people who expect more traditional younger champagne flavors.
On the Coravin:
Different boxes:
They made about 30k bottles, and sold most of them to JAL as a white label release during the 2008 financial crisis when CH almost went bankrupt and they needed to raise cash. But they did a 4,000 bottle release of the 28 year old 1996 Blanc des Millénaires at the same time they released the 2014 BdM in 2024. By the time the 1996 was released it went through three head winemakers at Charles Heidsieck: Thierry Roset (who died in 2014) when it was harvested and put on the yeast, Cyril Brun who tasted it in the 2010s and disgorged it and Elise Losfelt when it was finally released.
There was an interesting podcast interview I listened to that covered this in more detail.
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Hi Sarah,
What didn’t you enjoy about the Lassaigne Cotet this time around? Do you have the disgorgement/base? Curious, so I can correlate against the bottles in my cellar.
Thanks!
No info, sorry. I was not even vaguely cuirous about the disgorgement on a wine I Instantly disliked. I was never going to have it again, at least not on purpose, so the details are irrelevant to me.
It was lean, slightly natural, had no depth, opened up a little with food, but didn’t particularly work with any dishes. I don’t really like the producer generally, but it’s all over European wine lists and sometimes the only one that’s not ridiculously expensive. I had never had the Cotet and decided to try it. I should have known better.
Really disappointing to hear. I’ve had it a few times and really enjoyed it - but it could have been the base. I agree that it has quite a presence in Europe and European wine shops, especially in Spain without crazy markups. Thanks!
No big deal, there’s nothing wrong with the wine or liking it. It just didn’t please me, isn’t my style. I am told now that it’s his leanest wine, so there wasn’t much chance I was going to like it. Now I know.
Actually went through (5) winemakers! Daniel Thibaut, Regis Camus and then Theirry Roset, Cyril Brun, and Elise Losfelt. You can probably add Émilien Erard too since the wine will continue to be released.
I can’t recall how much they made of the 1996, but I recall being told it was quite a bit more than 30k bottles. There were multiple problems Charles Heidsieck had with figuring out the release of the wine. First, sales weren’t going well (as you mentioned) and they had tons of the 1995 BdM. They also weren’t a big fan of the wine when it was young finding it too hard and not nearly as expressive as the 1995 and past vintages. As we moved past 2010 and then through 2015, they felt the wine was too old to be released as a current vintage. Hence, the holdback and late release… at a higher price vs. if it was a current release.
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In the podcast interview I linked (which I updated in the original post since the link was to the wrong episode) about the 1996 story, Stephen Leroux said about 30k bottles (at about 16:00) “had been produced” (vs 400k for 1995). But I wonder if he meant he saw 30k bottles remaining at CH (after the airline sell off)… a bit earlier he said “level of stock of 96”?
I am not sure exactly how many bottles of the 96 BdM were made, but I was told it was quite a bit higher than the 1996 Vintage which was I believe was 40k. I also don’t know if any bottles ended up being poured back as reserves. This information dates back to before Stephen joined the Heidsieck group so I don’t know what may have changed.
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Holy smokes this was good. Golden delicious apple, ripe lemon, half-cooked pie crust. Creamy palate leading into a bright and dry finish that does not feel super zero-dosage to me.
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So my better half’s business is being audited and she has been a mess and no or very little sleep for the last 3 days ugh. What better way to get back on track than one of our favorite wines. 2002 Ployez-Jacquemart Champagne Liesse d’Harbonville. This shit will fix any problems lol.
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Roederer 244 from magnum is even better than from 750. Soft mousse, beautiful flavors. It was a hit at the CSW anniversary dinner
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Great wine. Almost as good as the guy pouring it!
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As you might recall, that’s one of my favorites, especially with some age.
I love that wine.