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!

NV  Rose (Lombardy, Italy)

40% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay & 20% Pinot Blanc. Dry. Franciacorta is a lovely alternative bubbly. A delicious sparkler for casual celebrations, fresh, lively, with a delicate, lacy froth that dances across the tongue. Very pretty petal pink color.

NV  

100% Chardonnay. A little black dress in a bottle, a very classy Champagne. The fine mousse shows its good breeding & the beautiful gold packaging makes a gorgeous presentation on the holiday sideboard or in a Champagne bucket.

2012  

Vinous: 92 Points - "The 2012 Brut Spécial Club Millésimé 1er Cru is a powerful, authoritative wine. Lemon peel, white flowers and orchard fruit are some of the many nuances that blossom in a rich, resonant Champagne loaded with class and personality. Creamy and ample, with terrific depth and plenty of volume, the 2012 will drink well for a number of years. The 2012 finishes just a touch dry, but there is a good deal of substance as well. Disgorged: April 2017. Dosage is 6.5 grams per liter."

2013  

There have been great ones over the years - 2002, 2008, 2012 - but none as otherworldly as this, the most exquisite young Champagne I have ever tasted. Deg. 8/29/17, it is quite different from the ’12, but just as sublime. 2012 croons, and this one whispers. ’12 leaps like a gazelle; ’13 flaps its gossamer white wings. ’12 is clearly and tangibly great; ’13 is ethereally and hauntingly great. ’13 is a little like 2008, but with less prominent acidity; still, it’s in the family of high cirrus-y skies with mares’ tails and ice-rainbows. I wish I had four plusses to give it. Each pure beautiful element of Champagne is carefully arranged to be examined and identified, until they all melt together into Pleiades of nuance and structure. It’s an ivory-pale bride, shining with bliss and love, even through her gauzy veil. This weightless masterpiece is 30% PN from Mareuil (Faubourg d’Enfer, Croix Blanche, Pruche and Côtes), 25% Aÿ (Cheuzelles, Pierre Robert, and Le Léon) 35% CH old-vines Mareuil (Beauregard, Ramonette and Buisson Saint Loup) and 10% CH Oiry and Chouilly (Justice and Montaigu). It is also a Coeur de Cuvée. - Terry Theise

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.

N/V  

NV  West Sussex England

West Sussex England

2008  Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill

"One of the great Champagnes both for its richness and its longevity, this latest incarnation is superb. The wine's richness is linked to the ripe fruit and the dominance of Pinot Noir in the blend. It also shines in the perfect balance between the texture, the minerality and the integration of the fruit. It can be enjoyed now, but it will be better from 2020 and then for many years to come." 100pts WE (RV) (12/2018) -- "Sourced in grand cru vineyards and blending Pinot Noir with Chardonnay, Pol Roger's 2008 Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill displays an intense straw-yellow/white-golden color and opens with a beautifully deep, fresh, concentrated and beautifully aromatic bouquet of perfectly ripe tropical fruits, refreshing lemons, very fine vanilla and brioche aromas. The attack on the palate is fresh and finessed, and in the following seconds, the 2008 reveals great airiness, precision, purity and intensity with a firm, persistent structure in the long, refreshing, perfectly balanced and mouthwateringly salty finish. The 2008 Winston Churchill is a highly complex yet focused and vitalizing prestige cuvée of great, great finesse, chalky expression and exciting elegance. It already drinks great but also indicates immense aging potential. It's most likely one of the finest of this century and one of the greatest Churchills of modern times. Tasted from lot L82002894D in July 2018. Disgorgement date unknown. The wine will be released in the second half of this year." 96pts WA (SR) (8/2018)

2013  Conca del Riu Anoia Brut Rosé de Nit

A Reserva level Cava, 'de Nit' is a blend of the traditional Cava grapes: 55% Macabeo, 20% Xarelo, 20% Parrellada with the addition of 5% Monastrell for complexity and its Rosé color. It is produced in the Methode Champenoise and the disgorgement date is printed on the back label.

2012  "Blanc de Negres"

The exploration of 3 local red varieties: Xarel.lo Vermell, Bastard Negre and Sumoll. Textures de Pedra is the highest expression of the Mediterranean varieties, the Penedès climate, the stony soils of Conca del Riu Anoia and the result of a long aging on the lees, a "Blanc de Negres" which is concentrated on the palate and has great potential for aging. These grapes are sourced from Vinya Més Alta, which is at the top of theSerral hill and has stony soils, farmed biodynamically. The wine is aged on its lees for 42 months and is bottled with zero dosage.

2002  Chardonnay

This series is intended to express the work of a man on his soil. The role of the winemaker is limited and every effort is made to respect and preserve the integrity of the level of expression of the vintage. Vinification in small oak barrels, no malolactic fermentation, no cold stabilisation, no filtration but a lot of passion.