December Wine Focus: I’ll take Champagne

[Robin Garr]

The subject says it all. Even in this strangest of years, we are into the holiday season now, and a popping cork and a glass of bubbly seem right. Bring your Champagnes if you can do it, or bring your sparkling wines of choice. We can talk about method traditionelle or dosage or other geeky bubbly terms; or we can just pop corks and enjoy. However you like it, bring your bubbly to Wine Focus this month.

[David M. Bueker]

Didn’t open it (yet) but Laura’s birthday present today was a couple of bottles of 2008 Taittinger CdC.

Every Sunday since March this year I've opened a bottle of fizz as an aperitif to the evening roast, and with a decent stopper it's lasted for aperitifs through Wednesday. Thus yesterday, 1 December, we had a second glass of

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N.V. Lanson Champagne Brut Black Label (France, Champagne)

This is our favourite 'big name' Champagne and its probably because it didn't go through malo. I understand that policy has changed recently. I bought this in December 2016 and it was disgorged in March that year. I like to keep traditional method fizz for a couple of years as I think bottle-age (even as little as 6 months) gives a noticeable improvement.

This has all the generous fizz of tiny bubbles, with refreshing bite and real satisfaction, that I want from pinot grapes fizz.

[David M. Bueker]

I like to keep traditional method fizz for a couple of years as I think bottle-age (even as little as 6 months) gives a noticeable improvement.

Agree with you on that. The state of my cellar sometimes means an expected couple of years turns into ten, but I haven't had anything go off due to the extra time.

Guess time to think about festive bubblys! Always enjoy the Roederer Brut from California, price has not risen much over the years, say around $40 Cda. However this sparkling Cab Franc is a traditional fave every year.

TN: N/V Langlois-Chateau Carmin Dry, Loire Valley.

SC, $29 Cda. Light ruby color that really sparkles in the glass. Raspberry, roses, floral nose. Off-dry, good acidity, length enhances the experience. Lively mousse, mineral finish. Should really drink more of this wine but have cut back on my purchases of late. Bravo Langlois!

From the archive. 10 yrs ago!!

WTN: N/V Langlois Carmin Dry, Loire Valley.

Very nice Xmas Eve meal down in Medicine Hat last year. 13.5% alc, $28 Cdn. 100 percent Cab Franc. Served just slightly chilled with a roast shoulder.

Very fine mousse, off-dry, medium intense center with faded strawberry rim. Quite delicate, not a big fruit bomb! Just a hint of green pepper on finish but nice blackcurrant and berry. Guess might be hard to find elsewhere, even Jim Budd in the UK was surprised when I first mentioned this wine.

TN: N/V Langlois-Chateau Carmin Dry, Loire Valley.

Sounds lovely, Bob. IIRC Bollinger owns Langlois-Château. Loire bubbly can be excellent. I have a bottle of Jacky Blot's Montlouis Triple Zéro waiting for attention .

[David M. Bueker]

Had a bottle of Mousse Fils in the fridge for the weekend, but with the menu ending up as Indian and US Southwest style food it went back to the cellar. Maybe next week.

Our aperitif for Sunday was my last bottle of

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2013 Camel Valley Classic Cuvee Brut (England, Cornwall)

Classic Cuvee because it's made from the three Pinot varieties. Jo was surprised when told what she was drinking as she thought it was Lanson Champagne. And it could be; very small bubbles in profusion, racy taut and dry but with a fruit richness, beautiful drinking.

It's 2013 vintage and I bought it in 2018.

Camel Valley's oldest vineyard is Seyval Blanc from which I think makes a superior sparkling wine but such is the demand for Champagne look alikes they subsequently additionally planted Pinots N,M & Chardonnay.

A Camel Valley sparkling wine was chosen by British Airways to be served in long haul first class cabins in 2019

The winery gets its name from the River Camel, which has nothing to do with animals but is derived from the Cornish word for twisted and refers to the many twists in the river.

[Jenise]

Pete, I have one of those though maybe not the same bottling. It's a Camel, anyway, and we've discussed those before. Very impressive stuff.

Okay, so nothing to report on the real champagne front but as far as I'm concerned this qualifies as an alternative sparkling wine:

Txopinondo Sagarnoa
Bottled 28 Jul 2015
6% alcohol

This is maybe the driest cider I've ever had. Brilliantly so, I might add, the flavors are quite intense and remind me of the starchy, dense green pippin apples of my childhood, which I adored. The color of 22K gold with a fabulously textured attack on the tongue with the microscopic bubbles hit. I didn't realize that the Basque region was so into ciders, but apparently they are. I got this and several others in a mixed case I ordered to help out a local cider bar. Take-out doesn't have to be just food, you know!

I've just been sent a clipping from The Times which is about English sparkling wine and exports, which are growing. Sounds impressive, but the number given is 550,000 bottles exported to 40 countries, which is not much wine to a lot of countries. However, Wine GB said the 'primary export market continues to be the US'.

England has part of that chalk/limestone outcropping that seems to make famous wines wherever it crops up in the subsoil: Champagne, the Cote d'Or, Cognac, Jerez de la Frontera. One positive consequence of global warming is that it's feasible to grow vines there again, as they used to in Roman times.

-Paul W.

I've noticed that Krug has become more and more transparent about revealing the disgorgement dates for its non-vintage Brut. Have any other Champagne producers picked up on that trend?

-Paul W.

...revealing the disgorgement dates for its non-vintage Brut. Have any other Champagne producers picked up on that trend?

-Paul W.

Is it uncommon? I have a Pierre Peters NV and a Jacquesson NV in the refrigerator ready to be opened, and both list disgorgement dates on the back label.

disgorgement dates for its non-vintage Brut. Have any other Champagne producers picked up on that trend.

Oh, yes. Lanson for one since at least 2010

Is it uncommon? I have a Pierre Peters NV and a Jacquesson NV in the refrigerator ready to be opened, and both list disgorgement dates on the back label.

It used to be that Champagne houses only gave disgorgement dates for special NV cuvees. Krug's labels had a lot control number on them and the disgorgement date was encoded in the number. If you knew the encoding you could determine the disgorgement date. I'm very glad to see this information more readily available.

-Paul W.

NV Pierre Péters Blanc de Blancs Cuvée de Réserve (March 2020 Disgorgement)

Delicious!

The more detailed note would say that it is fresh, crisp, mineral and very finely frothed. Not a profound or particularly deep Champagne, but there is enough firm snap and sap to the fruit to make it more than just elegant ephemera on the tongue. Well worth drinking and enjoying. And a great match to an assortment of sushi.

[David M. Bueker]

NV Pierre Péters Blanc de Blancs Cuvée de Réserve (March 2020 Disgorgement)

Delicious!

The more detailed note would say that it is fresh, crisp, mineral and very finely frothed. Not a profound or particularly deep Champagne, but there is enough firm snap and sap to the fruit to make it more than just elegant ephemera on the tongue. Well worth drinking and enjoying. And a great match to an assortment of sushi.

2017 base FWIW

2017 base FWIW

Thanks for that.

I don't follow Champagne very closely but it should be interesting to taste the next round of NVs and see how they dealt with the 2018 heat.

[Jenise]

Opened a NV Paul Berthelot Champagne Premier Cru Eminence on Friday to celebrate my BIL's birthday. It was fair, but seemed to have a lot less personality than a year ago when I first purchased these bottles. I generally give NV's a cellaring window of five years during which time I generally expect some beneficial maturing, but not this one or at least this time.

Opened a NV Paul Berthelot Champagne Premier Cru Eminence on Friday to celebrate my BIL's birthday. It was fair, but seemed to have a lot less personality than a year ago when I first purchased these bottles. I generally give NV's a cellaring window of five years during which time I generally expect some beneficial maturing, but not this one or at least this time.

Might there have been low level cork taint, just enough to suppress some fruit favours?

I've not had an example where keeping a NV traditional method sparkling wine hasn't seen improvement.

Sunday aperitif this week was

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N.V. J Vineyards & Winery Cuvée 20 (California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley)

I have a lot of fizz, but six from J Vineyards are the only ones from the Americas. We've visited J but not had Cuvee 20 before which came into being to celebrate the winery's 20th anniversary. They were founded specifically to make traditional method sparkling wine, but now also make some still wines.

They've let a web-designer play around creating their website, which is heavy on pictures, platitudes and trickery but very light on facts. So I don't know what grapes were used to make the wine in the bottle. They list their vineyards, and varieties named are Pinots N and G and Chardonnay, but they don't specify varieties grown in some vineyards. The bottle label doesn't give the disgorgement date.

I assume this is a Chardonnay/Pinot blend. It's very Champagne like with a light lemon sherbet flavour. A large amount of froth on pouring and persistent stream of tiny bubbles. It's really pleasant, one to drink and not think deeply about.

$38 from winery; I got this for £21.99 from Majestic near my home. Majestic say they've got 300 cases. I got 6 bottles primarily because of the single swooping J on the bottle which took Jo's fancy: on our last visit she bought a sweatshirt their because it has the logo on its front

Pierre Péters

If I saw that, I'd buy it for its name and use as my new house Champagne.

So good they named it twice.

[Jenise]

Peter, being from California myself I've had many a J over the years. Never been offended but never been impressed. On reflection I'm in some ways surprised at their continued success. Never thought what they did as good as, say, Iron Horse, who has also been making sparkling wines over all these years but not been, that I can tell, as successful--if ubiquitousness is a measure of same.

I don't think I've had an Iron Horse, indeed I've not had many US sparkling wines. Outside of California I remember Gruet (NM), Mawby (MI) & Westport River (MA)

We do get some CA fizz here, e.g. Mumm Napa, Roederer Quartet, but mostly I buy US fizz when in USA

My current depleted stocks of fizz are

Champagne 26 + 11 halves
(Other French 9)
England 13
Spain 11
South Africa 5
California 5
(all but one are traditional method, and all but 22 from Pinot family grapes).

This year we have had at least one bottle of fizz every week, and I expect to deplete the cellar more during the 5 days of Christmas when my son and his partner visit from Wales.

But there will be again deep discounts on fizz after Christmas if previous years are an indicator.

(for the record, I love Champagne but I’d prefer other regions to use other grapes. I don’t need to buy a champagne look-like when I can as easily get Champagne.)