Category: Champagne

Well, I’m a silly boy, just noticed this is the second bottle. Old and forgetful as well as silly. The first one was reviewed in July 2020, two years ago, my only mitigation. Similar points and probably on the 94 side of 95, either seems right. Consistently delicious bottle of extravagant bubbles nonetheless.

A weekend of treats from the cellar. This one from the good value direct importer, Champagne de Vigneron. A few years rest after 50 months on lees and it smells so good. Voirin Jumel again disclose more info than most on the back label, hundred percent grand cru Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, five different vintages plus 20% reserve wine, barrel fermented in old oak between 15 and twenty years old, no malo and 6g/l dosage. Complicated bit of wine making. The result is amazingly single minded. Great perfume of savoury brioche yeasty lees, crystalline fruit and chalky freshness. Drives long and narrow all the way to a lingering end of grapefruit and a sort of yeasty floral honey. Quiet power that ends in a puff of steely acidity leaving the mouth fresh as fragrance fills the senses. Over a couple of days maybe a little oak texture and definitely a tarte tatin richness to add weight to a memorable end. Not flamboyant but plenty of flavour. By way of understatement, what a good way to encourage an appetite.

12% perhaps, the gold print on black velour label is very posh but faded. Cork. Think it was well under $100 which in the scheme of the Champagnois price thinking is a bargain.

94 very poised points. Extra for appetite sharpening.

Cinq cent cinquante cinq certainly isn’t the easiest French number for an anglophone to get their mouth around. So much easier to drink though. So rich, dense and compact. Beautiful clean smells and tastes of crystallised citrus, quince, apple tarte tatin and spiced brioche. Such a mid winter cheer up treat. Over two days nothing budged from the first phhuutt of opening. It’s been languishing in the cellar for a couple of years, demonstrated by the cork staying compressed after gently wriggling free and just about the only clue to its age. The flavours despite their power show impressive compression and tension. For the technically minded, the back label says so much more than most Champagnes are willing to admit. All Grand Cru Chardonnay from the Côte de Blancs, barrel ferment, five different vintages, 20% reserve wine, 6gs per litre dosage and no malolactic ferment. The last bit still shows strongly with a surge of mouthwatering, appetite enhancing tingling acidity to close. Don’t think there’s a better way to start yet another quiet evening at home.

12% alcohol. Cork. Enthusiastic wifely purchase. Thanks indeed for sharing, dear.

95 points.

A very upmarket bottle of fizz from Chardonnay grown in the hallowed Grand Cru turf of Le Mesnil sur Oger in the Côte de Blancs. Opens with a bottle aged, nose tingling whack of barley sugar, dead yeast and lemon peel. Amazingly still bubbly on day two, it just threw off the blankets of age and awoke fresher and full of energy. More hedgerow flowers, touch of peach, candied citrus and gingerbread spice in aroma and mouthful. The structure sets it apart from any other BdB I’ve been lucky enough to share. Extraordinary vice like grip of shining steel acidity, paradoxically fine and pinpoint, carries the flavours on and on like a TGV at top speed. A smooth, powerful ride. Don’t think the ticket’s exactly affordable on a daily commute basis.

12% alcohol. Cork. Glad I didn’t have to pay for it, current release retails well over $200, gulp.

95 points.

The front label is much prettier but goodness, don’t you wish all NV Champagne had a back label with this much info? If you just like glugging Veuve then you’re probably indifferent and aren’t reading this anyway. For the price of anodyne LVMH you can have this though. Sparklingly clean in every sense, flowers, crystallised citrus, touch of yeasty patisserie and driving linear acidity carrying all those flavours a long way. Contained, subtle power that rules on shiny polished rails. The reserve wine and time on those little yeast beasties just add intricacy to the chalky sense of place. Côte des Blancs precision from an obsessively quality driven producer who only makes small amounts of bliss like this. This would make even the most jaded appetite drool.

12% alcohol. Cork. $70 or thereabouts direct from the importer.

95 points.

Pure Chardonnay from the Côtes des Blancs. Opens with some yeast and savoury smells, then goes all tight and steely, then becomes a sublime exercise in linear power contained by an exquisite lightness of being. The fruit is fine sweet citrus and perfumed quince skin. Touches of spice and the best ripe acidity leave a hauntingly long taste of enormous subtleness. Incredibly clean and fresh too. If bombast and sweetness matter most in Champagne, then you’ll miss the beauty of this quietly spoken angel.

12.50% alcohol. Cork. $75.

95 delicate points.

August 2020, same label, different wine, such is NV based on different years and disgorging dates. 2016 base wine. Less generous than the one above, yeasty brioche and tarte tatin without the sugar to start, then a wave of chalky dry austerity. Cool citrus and sort of Chablis like green ripeness paradox.

92 points but maybe more with another year or so rest?