When we asked our regular columnists here at Wine Review Online to share their thoughts and experiences with Champagne and/or sparkling wine as we neared the celebration of a New Year, I wasn't sure what to expect.
I was confident, however, that their offerings would be entertaining, enlightening and, perhaps most of all, personal.
Whether you are a bonafide connoisseur or you know next to nothing about Champagne and its many kissing cousins, there is something here for you. What you will learn from my distinguished colleagues is that new experiences are often the most memorable.
Over and over I was reminded that discovery is one of our most powerful and lasting emotions. By all means make an effort to emulate some of their many wonderful and memorable experiences.
But never be afraid to take a flyer on an obscure domain or a producer with whom you are not familiar. Who knows, it could change your life, if only for the moment.
I wish you and yours all the best this holiday season, and remind you to enjoy your bubbly responsibly. And now, memories and more from our staff here at WRO:
Winemakers and others in the trade insist that magnums are the ideal format for producing and aging Champagne. While that may be true, from my perspective the real advantage of a magnum of Champagne is simple: it holds more. Plus, Champagne served from magnum adds an extra element of celebration to a party. It's telling your guests, "Enjoy, there's plenty to drink."
And plenty of Champagne is precisely what you need on New Year's Eve. I like to drink it as an aperitif with Boyajian's smoked salmon, which is so rich and smooth it's like eating salmon flavored butter. Then take it to the table to wash down cold, briny oysters.
For special occasions, Philiponnat's Clos des Goisses (about $100) makes a magical combination of power and grace. It's unique because it is the only tête de cuvée Champagne that comes from a premier instead of a grand cru village. But there's not doubt that the wine is grand cru quality.
For my money, Pol Roger is the best value in non-vintage Champagne. In the Boston market, it's available for $28, an incredible buy for this slightly toasty and suave bubbly.
Prosecco, lighter and breezier than Champagne, is an engaging alternative. My new favorite, from Valdobbiadene, the best zone for Prosecco, is Maschio dei Cavalieri (about $20).
New World winemaking has successfully matched or bettered Old World wine types, with two exceptions. While American wine consumers are not exactly clamoring for a brandy that reaches the heights of Cognac (or, for that matter, Armagnac), with the odd exception of top-end California brandies like Germain Robin, Cognac continues to hold sway as the world's premier brandy.
Then there's Champagne, a sparkling wine that is imitated both in name and style wherever in the world sparkling wine is made, but not successfully. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Champagne makers could stand to be flattered a little more.
Prior to the early 1970s, California sparkling wine of note was little more than an afterthought. Then, most of the California wine with bubbles was made by the Charmat method, and while some, like the tasty wines from Angelo Papagni, were respectable sparklers, most lacked the finesse of a bottle-fermented wine. Bubbly made by the traditional Champagne method was available from Napa's Schramsberg and Kornell, Korbel of Sonoma and Scharffenberger in Mendocino. Schramsberg and Korbel called their wines "Champagne," a tactic that made the Champenoise see rouge.
Moet-Hennessy made California wine history in 1973 when the French Champagne firm bought land in Napa County and began building what would become Domaine Chandon. The winery and restaurant were opened in 1977, but Chandon had already stunned the wine world with the release in 1976 of a Napa Valley Brut that was dry and crisper than most California sparkling wines. To keep peace at home, Moet called their new bubbly California sparkling wine, a name that doesn't sit well with many wine people, but no one has yet come up with a better one.
Moet had set the pace with Chandon and others soon followed, including Piper Sonoma (1982), owned by Piper-Heidsieck, and Maison Deutz (1985) in Arroyo Grande, owned by Champagne Deutz. In 1989, the list of French-owned California sparkling wine houses grew with the opening of Domaine Mumm, later to be called Mumm Napa Valley, and Domaine Carneros, owned by Taittinger. Of course, the French did not completely own the revitalization of California sparkling wine. Spanish Cava producers Cordorniu and Freixenet (Gloria Ferrer) established wineries in Carneros.
Eventually a shakeout saw Scharffenberger sell to Pommery et Greno in 1989, which then became Pacific Echo, a name that only a marketer could love; Maison Deutz closed its doors; Piper Sonoma changed ownership and Codorniu left California and the distinctive winery was renamed Artesa. The French connection also opened the door for the likes of Iron Horse and Jordan's "J," producers of noted sparkling wines that honor the heritage of Champagne and the entrepreneurial approach of California.
All of these houses were making very good to excellent cuvees, using mainly traditional Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and later a little Pinot Meunier. What set them apart, then and now, from traditional Champagne houses was the use of varieties like Pinot Blanc and even a little Ugni Blanc. It may have been heresy at the time, but the New World experimentation developed a new sparkling wine, made by the Champagne method, that successfully wed the sumptuousness of California fruit with the finesse and delicacy of Champagne.
For me, the California sparkling wine company that has brought those factors together while setting the standard for excellence is Roederer Estate, owned by Champagne Louis Roederer. Built in 1986 in Mendocino's Anderson Valley, Roederer Estate established a new level of excellence and class for California sparkling wine. Although I think that Domaine Carneros Le Reve is a sophisticated prestige sparkling wine, the Roederer Estate têts de cuvée, L'Ermitage, is for me the best sparkling wine produced in California and the bottle I recommend to make your holiday happy!
In Champagne the most pointed and geographically specific wines, the wines that really discriminate the terroir of the region, are the wines from grower producers. The Great Houses of Champagne may make great wine, but generally they care little about articulating terroir. They prefer to market a "house style," a blend of wines with an idea to create something majestic and distinctive out of these discrete elements, a crafted wine that is thought to be much grander than the sum of its parts. But how does one locate a sense of place from the sum of a thousand parts?
Champagne importer Terry Theise believes that most of the big houses prefer to ignore the question, and that the end result is a wine that approximates terroir expression the way an artist's rendering approximates the likeness of a face. And what you lose, in his estimation, is character: "Character lives in asymmetry," he says. "If you just want to alter the shape of the face to take out all of the asymmetry, you get perfect, and perfectly bland--you get Vanna White."
Theise is one of the growers' most vocal and at times vociferous champions. He imports more than fifty different bottlings from about a dozen small grower producers, families who at one time or another parted ways with the Grandes Marques to start wineries of their own. Typically they have small land holdings, relatively few resources, and miniscule productions. Compared with the Grandes Marques, they're mere specks on the map. But they're getting noticed. And the first thing that people notice about these wines is that they taste like they come from somewhere.
Take the wines of Pierre Larmandier, of Larmandier-Bernier from Vertus, whose blanc de blancs "Terre de Vertus" (note the word terre--"earth"--in the name) tastes like a cold splash of water on your face; nothing prepares you for its bracing minerality, the high trill of its acid. Just to the north in Cuis, Larmandier's cousinm, Didier Gimonnet, makes wines that are relatively elegant, with much deeper pomme de terre flavors. And if you head still further north to Bouzy on the slopes of the Montagne de Reims, you're in Pinot Noir country, and near the domaine of Camille Savez, whose stubbornly earthy wines combine a beautiful cherry fruit with a seductive mineral texture. These are but three of more than five thousand. You owe it to yourself to see what the rest of Champagne is up to.
As someone who is fortunate enough to travel to Champagne frequently, and who is married to a serious Champagne collector, I get to taste prestige cuvée Champagnes frequently, and have had many, many memorable bottles. (Yes, I do sometimes feel guilty at being so privileged!) The wine that has given me the most memorable experiences is Dom Pérignon, but the single most memorable experience was courtesy of Bollinger's rare "Vieilles Vignes Françaises."
Ed and I were visiting Champagne in June of 2000 with our dear friends, who are winemakers from Piedmont. Late afternoon, sun shining through the windows, we were perched in the elevated tasting room at Bollinger. We worked our way up from the Bollinger NV Special Cuvée to a vintage Bollinger or two and an R.D., and then the 1989 Vieilles Vignes. It was a compelling experience, each wine fantastic but the next one even better. When we got to the Vieilles Vignes, I couldn't help myself: I began to cry. "This wine is so rich," I sobbed, "and yet so finessed, and yet so powerful...(sob)."
I was embarrassed to be so emotional, and yet I knew that my emotion had given the good people of Bollinger a high compliment, and obviously an extremely sincere one.
Bollinger's Vieilles Vignes Françaises is an extremely small production Champagne made entirely from Pinot Noir grown on ungrafted vines. It does not age as well as many other Champagnes, and in 2000, the 1989 was certainly at a peak of perfection. It is frustrating that the wine is so rare and so expensive--about $375 a bottle--but if it were not, perhaps it wouldn't be so memorable.
I love big, rich, aged Champagnes -- the kind that are as much wine as they are Champagne. That's why Charles Heidsieck is a favorite Champagne house of mine. Even the most delicate wines of the house--such as the stunning Blanc des Millénaires, a Blanc de Blancs---are rich for their type.
I first realized how much I love Charles Heidsieck NV Brut Reserve several years ago at The Wine Spectator's New York Wine Experience. Hopping from table to table, cramming in as many great Champagnes as I could before moving on to the whites and reds, I ended up at the Charles Heidsieck table and experienced the palate equivalent of coming home. This was my wine--as rich as the Bollinger but easier to enjoy that night, not as monumental as the Krug but in that style, and a bit friendlier, as well as more affordable.
One of the secrets to the Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve is its strong component of reserve wines. About 40 percent of each Brut Reserve blend comes from aged, reserve wines, an unusually high amount. Also, these reserve wines always represent at least eight different vintages.
It's not just that the rich, toasty opulence-plus-dryness of the Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve stands out in a melée of extravagance such as that Wine Spectator tasting. It's equally compelling in quiet moments. And, along with other Charles Heidsieck wines, it stands up to critical scrutiny. At the Critics Challenge wine judging in San Diego last year, the 1995 Blanc des Millénaires won a unanimous Platinum Award from the judges, and the sweepstakes of the competition. None of us judges could deny its greatness. In its own category, the Brut Reserve can be equally exciting.
Cuvee de Prestige: This could hardly be an easier choice for me, despite the fact that I ardently adore many high-end Champagnes. The choice is easy because my whole insane love affair with wine exploded out of a single bottle of Krug "Grande Cuvee" Brut NV. My epiphany occurred on the night of my wedding, and the Krug was a gift from my best man. I liked wine at the time, but paid no real attention to it, and was just as happy with beer or scotch or gin.
I had enjoyed some pretty good Champagnes to that point, but the Krug was--quite literally--stunning. I had never tasted anything so complex and layered and compelling. Despite all of the excitement in the immediate aftermath of the ceremony and all the anticipation of the impending reception, I was totally riveted on the Krug. My wife still laughs about trying to engage me in conversation about the occasion in the back of the reception-bound limo only to be asked, again and again, "can you believe this WINE?" I was totally hooked from the moment that I tasted that wine in 1986, and the plain fact is that it changed my life every bit as much as the other events of the day. I won't even try to describe the taste of Krug to you here, but simply implore you to experience it for yourself sometime before you die!
Non-Vintage Brut: My choice is relatively rare but well worth a search: Lilbert-Fils Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut NV. If you've got $75 to $200 to buy yourself a Blanc de Blancs Champagne at the Cuvee de Prestige level, you'll likely be very happy with the outcome. But the one thing that you pretty much cannot get out of non-vintage Blanc de Blancs Champagne is true Brut dryness and the level of sophistication at which fruit and yeast are augmented by an equally prominent minerality. This wine shows remarkably intricate aromas and flavors, and it has shown them every time I have ever tasted it. This small house is located in the great Chardonnay commune of Cramant, and though you'll hardly be left wanting by this non-vintage offering, don't fail to try Lilbert's vintage wines, which are made entirely from estate vineyards. The current vintage release is 1999, and it is marvelous.
Affordable Sparkler: Nothing I've tasted during the past two years can touch Lindauer Brut NV from Marlborough, New Zealand. It sells for about $12, but tastes like $20, and is phenomenally interesting in a clean and subtle (as opposed to sweet and yeasty) mode. Delicious on its own and brilliant with raw oysters, it has great flavors and fantastic underlying acidity.
Favorite Bubbly Food: I love all sorts of soups and fish dishes and salty finger foods with Champagne and sparkling wine, but since I have a quasi-religious attachment to raw oysters, they'd have to get the nod.
Like many people, I used to think of Champagne as something to sip at celebrations, but not really a serious wine, that is, not something to drink with food. Then years ago, during my first trip to Champagne, I was served Veuve Clicquot Rosé with, of all things, lamb chops. I think the vintage was 1985, but can't be sure. What I can be certain about is that the match was stupendous. And from that point on, I thought of Champagne differently -- so much so that I now consider it one of the most versatile wines at the dinner table, pairing marvelously well with everything from delicate seafood to hearty meat dishes.
My favorite moments with Champagne and sparkling wine, then, all involve food. There was the first time I tried it (Pol Roger NV Brut, if memory serves) with sushi, a now obligatory combination for Marguerite and me. The time I took a bottle of Domaine Carneros Brut to our favorite local Thai restaurant, tried it with curry, and realized how much better it works than beer. And the time, just last summer, that I savored Laurent-Perrier Rosé Brut with cold beet soup, an experience that confirmed what by then I already knew--no wine goes better with soup than bubbly.
Favorite Cuvée de Prestige Champagne: Wow! This is a tough one! I have so many favorite Prestige Cuvées, but if I narrow them down to two, it has to be Vintage Krug and Louis Roederer Cristal, and if I must choose one, it's Cristal for me.
Cristal is perfection in Champagne. It just has such perfect balance, and such great complexity! Mary and I love it so much that we even bought one of the 2,000 methuselahs (8-bottle-size) of 1990 Cristal, which we opened (with friends, of course) on the stroke of the year 2000. We had to put it in the bathtub to chill it!
We saw all those beautiful methuselahs lying there in all their golden beauty -- in their clear bottles -- in Roederer's cellar in Reims, and we couldn't resist buying one. How was it, you wonder? It was fine, but it was too young, of course. That's the thing about great prestige cuvées, such as Cristal. They really need about 20 years to mature. The perfect Cristal for me was the one we opened the day after Thanksgiving, 2004.
I was feeling cheated because we spent Thanksgiving on a plane, returning home from Italy. And so the next day we had our turkey and I opened our last bottle of 1985 Cristal. Yes! A Champagne to have on your deathbed.
It was not only the best Champagne I drank in 2004, but it was also the best wine I had all year. Perhaps only the 1928 Krug was more memorable for me. The '85 Cristal was perfectly mature that day; it made me realize that I had been drinking too many young Cristals. It just exploded on our palates, with a rainbow of flavors. The 1996 Cristal is also awesome, perhaps the star of that great vintage. And of course, there's always Cristal Rose!
Favorite Non-Vintage Brut: Gosset Grande Réserve Brut is my favorite non-vintage Brut. I enjoy very dry, powerful, flavorful Bruts, and the Gosset Grande Réserve fills the bill on all counts. It's made from only grand cru and premier cru grapes from Gosset's own vineyards, and aged for five years before it's released. And so it has enough age on it so that you can open it immediately. But it will age for a number of years; it doesn't go through malolactic fermentation, which keeps it young and also guarantees good acidity. The Grande Réserve is a Champagne to have with dinner; it's too powerful to serve as an apéritif. Try it with roast chicken and mushrooms!
Affordable Sparkler: There's a French bistro in Tribeca, on the lower west side of New York City, called Capsouto Frères. After 9/11, they didn't do much business, of course. They spent the weeks after the disaster providing free lunches and dinners to firemen and the rest of the 9/11 clean-up crew. Capsouto Frères, for as long as I can remember, has always served Argyle Vintage Brut by the glass. It was here that I fell in love with Argyle. It's so clean, light, and fresh; so elegant, that's it's hard not to like. More Chardonnay than Pinot Noir. A perfect aperitif, and a great way to begin dinner at this charming bistro.
Favorite Foods with Champagne: I have two favorite foods with Champagne. If I'm having a Blanc de Blancs or an elegant prestige cuvée such as Pommery Louise, I love to have caviar, usually osetra. I know, it's trite, caviar and Champagne. But it works! The caviar just melts in my mouth as I combine it with the wonderful flavors of Champagne. My other favorite food is hard aged cheeses, such as parmesan, aged gouda, aged cheddar, and asiago, with older Vintage Champagnes, especially Krug or Bollinger. The cheeses just make you appreciate the complex, aged flavors of the Champagnes that much more. My favorite brunch? Scrambled eggs with truffles (mushrooms will do when truffles aren't available) and a great Blanc de Blancs Champagne; Billecart-Salmon, Pol Roger and Deutz's wonderful Blanc de Blancs come to mind.
I not only love Champagne, I crave it. Sometimes I feel like Marilyn Monroe, who was said to adore bubbly so much, she bathed in it. The only reason I haven't tried that yet is because I'd want to put a big straw in the tub and drink it first.
Though I'll gladly imbibe just about any bottle with bubbles, my preferred choice is Rosé. Not only is it gorgeous to sip, with a spectrum of hues ranging from pale salmon to sapphire pink, it's the vinous equivalent of eye candy. Most are dry in style and gain their appealing color from steeping with the skins of red grapes such as Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. These sparklers are an ideal complement to holiday meals, pairing equally as well with appetizers as with turkey and ham dinners.
For parties, I like pouring the Codorniu Pinot Noir Brut Cava from Spain. At around $14, it's a wine worth twice the price. The packaging is impressive and the wine inside is delicious. Taking it to the next level, I reach for a California sparkler from Iron Horse Vineyards in Sonoma's Green Valley. Their deeply colored Brut Rosé, ringing in at $34, is layered and lush.
The first prestige cuvée Champagne I was ever aware of came my way many, many years ago when a thoughtful (and exceedingly generous) dinner guest sent as a thank-you gift a bottle of Perrier Jouët Fleur de Champagne.
It came in that gift pack we've all seen, with the two little floral flutes included. I knew little about wine then, but who could not be enchanted by the beautiful bottle adorned with its enameled Art Nouveau flowers? As luck would have it, the ambrosial nectar inside was as charming as the bottle itself, and this continues to be true vintage after vintage. I've not yet tasted the current vintage of Fleur de Champagne (1998), but I've no doubt that it is characterized by the same elegance, purity and complexity as the 1996 that I recently sampled.
L. Mawby Talismon is one of only two sparkling wines featured in Paul's new book "The Great Wines of America." I claim credit for "discovering" this thoroughly pleasing Michigan wine. Yes, that's right -- Michigan.
It all started four or five years ago, when I was visiting the Leelanau Peninsula in connection with an article I was writing. Many of the wines I encountered there were surprisingly impressive, but Larry Mawby's sparklers were in a league of their own. Paul was understandably skeptical, but once he tasted them he was won over enough to go out to Michigan himself, and after much tasting and comparing, he made the decision to include Talismon in his book.
Larry Mawby devotes himself entirely to sparkling wines, among which Talismon Brut NV is a clear leader. A rich, creamy blend of Vignoles, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, it has a clean, crisp finish. With only 7000 cases or so of it made every year, it's never been easy to come by, but with direct shipping laws loosening up, Mawby followers can get their fix by going to www.lmawby.com or calling 231-271-3522. And the label? Not only is it stylish and appealing, but like all L. Mawby labels, it includes a poem written by the winemaker himself.
