NV  Trois Puits

Trois Puits -- 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Meunier

NV  Trois Puits

Trois Puits -- 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, and 20% Pinot Meunier also Trois Puits and Rilly la Montagne. This is release is primarily from 2013 and was on the lees for 4 years, disgorged in July 2018. -- Pierre Baillette - Perine (Pierre's daugher) is Alexandre Chartogne's wife, from Chartogne-Taillet. The Domaine and vineyards have been in her family for generations and she took over everything around 2009. Her production is much smaller than Alexandre, at only 600-1000 bottles per cuvee, other than the Le Village, which is about 3000 bottles. Stylistically, the wines are very similar to Alex's wines - vinous, slightly oxidative, very mineral and (at the top end) based on single vineyard expressions. All the wines accept Le Village are on the lees for 4-6 years prior to release and dosage is relatively low, usually between 4-6 grams depending on the vintage. In terms of the vineyards, Perine has three sites - Trois-Puits (1er Cru), Rilly la Montagne (1er Cru), and Verzenay (Grand Cru). All three locations are south and south east facing, predominantly sandy limestone and chalk, and old vines. All the vineyard work is manual and are plowed by horse. The only spraying done in the vineyard is copper and sulphur is only added minimally at bottling.

NV  Extra Brut

Extra Brut

1997  

"(65% pinot noir and 35% chardonnay) Light yellow-gold. Expansive, smoky aromas of dried citrus fruits, peach, poached pear and honey, with a slow-building spiciness. Open-knit and gently sweet on entry, then tighter and more mineral-driven in the middle palate, offering lively orange and orchard fruit flavors and touches of nougat and praline. Smoothly melds richness and vivacity, finishing with superb clarity and nervy persistence. Here's yet another impressive 1997, a vintage which seems doomed to live in the shadow of 1995 and 1996. This was disgorged after aging for eight years in its bottle under cork." - 94pts Vinous & 94pts WA

NV  Brut Blanc de Blancs Cuvée Vendémiaire

Brut Blanc de Blancs Cuvée Vendémiaire -- "The NV Brut Premier Cru Cuvée Vendémiaire is a Chardonnay from five villages of the Côte des Blancs but is mainly sourced in Vertus (50%). The recent disgorgement from early 2018 (dosage: four grams per liter) is based on the 2012 vintage and includes 50% of reserve wines from vintages 2011 down to 2008. Intensely citrus colored, this is a pure, fresh, concentrated, very mineral and pure Chardonnay that still offers greenish citrus flavors. With great finesse and complexity on the palate, it is very elegant and pure as well as very long and expressive, with intense, powerful and well-concentrated but fresh and highly finessed fruit and vitality. There is lots of energy and tension here, lots of expression and length. Great complexity and vitality. This has huge aging potential. A great wine, indeed." - 94pts WA

1990  Charles Heidsiek Blanc de Millenaires

2003  

"As always, the 2003 Dom Pérignon has a lot to say. Bold, powerful and intensely phenolic in feel, the 2003 packs serious energy to match its explosive personality. The combined effects of a spring frost that decimated yields and a unrelentingly hot summer combined to produce one of the most powerful young Dom Pérignons I have ever tasted. The heavy presence of Pinot (62%) is felt in the wine's volume and breadth, making it one of the most vinous Dom Pérignons in recent memory. Given its structural depth, I imagine the 2003 will drink well for many, many years. Interestingly Chef de Caves Richard Geoffroy adds that the 2003 was lower in sugars than the 2002, but richer in phenolics." - 95pts Vinous

NV  "Cuvee Prestige"

The Duc de Romet Brut is a Blanc de Noirs of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. It’s 75% Meunier and 25% Pinot Noir. The vineyards are entirely from the village of Vandières which is along the Marne River, a few villages west of Cumières. Vandières has the same rating as Merfy, where Chartogne-Taillet is located, but the parcels here are situated in a south-eastern facing amphitheater around the village, much like Oger, which allows the grapes to become very ripe. The Duc de Romet is a delightfully balanced Blanc de Noirs made from purchased grapes from small growers in the village. This is a ND (Négociant-Distributeur), which means this is a blend from the different growers in the Vallée de la Marne who do not produce their own Champagne. The grapes are sent to the local co-op where they are fermented; one of our producers does the final blend.

NV  Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru

Disgorged July 2018 -- 100% Pinot Noir, 50% 2011 and 50% 2010, all from 70 year old vines in the single vineyard Les Crayeres in Ambonnay Grand Cru. Fermented and aged in barrel, no malo, 72 months sur latte. -- "Dense, full-bodied and voluptuous, with all of the richness of the old-vine coming through, the Crayères is fabulous. Red cherry, Mirabelle plum, dried flowers and spice notes fill out the wine’s ample frame effortlessly. Ample and creamy on the palate, with soft curves, the Crayères, also has more than enough vibrancy to develop beautifully in bottle for many years to come. These old vines date back to 1946 and 1947 and confer notable gravitas." - 95pts Vinous

NV  

"Was there ever a better vintage of this wine? Much more than the usual fruit-bomb, this is a panolply of complexity and flowers, especially roses and groseille. It should take us to the Fall, but it would avail you to be, well, grabby. I did taste a 2014 without dosage and had no reason to doubt it would be effective. But ’13 is stunning" - Terry Theise

NV  

100% Grand Cru, particularly satisfying Pinot Noir here. Fresh, bracing red-grape Champagnes with long, swollen midpalate flavors. Just 5 hectares in size, so availability is scarce! The vineyards are spread over 18 different mid-slope parcels in Ambonnay. The position of these vineyards are considered some of the best sites in Ambonnay and expressive of the classical character of this village. All his vineyards are grand cru and Serge Billiot says that the high degree of maturity from these sites doesn’t require malolactic. That makes them very frisky and reductive when they’re first disgorged, and occasionally a Billiot bottle will show a slightly metallic aroma for the first few minutes. That’s rare and nil if you hold the wines six months after disgorgement. Powerful and vinous, but also elegant and fine is the way that Laetitia Billiot describes the wines. Billiot does not filter his wines, fermentations take place in enameled stainless steel tanks. Billiot seems to want liveliness most of all, as he can presume upon lavish and deep fruit flavors. If you know the wines of Egly-Oriet (Billiot’s friend and neighbor) they couldn’t be more different. Egly pulls you down into its mealy-ripe depths; Billiot lifts you up on a billowing fountain of fruit. His wines have marvelous stamina and brightness. They’re hedonistic but not sloppy. Too firm and impeccable to be sloppy!

2016  Frizante

Frizante - Called the "Château Lafite of Languedoc" by the French magazine Gault et Millau, Mas de Daumas Gassac is the region's benchmark estate. Their flagship sparkling rosé is made from 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Manseng. Bled Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from the younger Daumas Gassac vineyards. The "free-run" grape juice is fermented in a closed tank so as to retain all the fermenting gas. Aged 3 to 4 months in closed stainless steel tank.