champagne

2019  Brut Nature - Single Vineyard Blanc de Noirs

Brut Nature

2022  

Brut Nature ---- "The brand new release of Vincent Laval’s Cumières non-vintage bottling is from the 2022 vintage. It has been released here in the US one year earlier than customary, as Vincent simply did not produce this cuvée in the challenging year of 2021. So the 2022 Base Year version has arrived here in the states with twelve months less aging sur lattes than is customary, though there will be a second tranche of the same wine released next fall with its usual time aging on the fine lees prior to disgorgement. The newly arrived release was disgorged on the last day of August of 2024. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a mix of nectarine, passion fruit, brioche, chalky soil tones and a gently musky floral topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still quite brisk structurally, with a lovely core of fruit, good soil undertow, elegant mousse and a long, nascently complex, well balanced and zesty finish." - 93 Points, John Gilman

NV  Extra Brut Grand Cru

Extra Brut Grand Cru ---- 70% Chardonnay from Le Mesnil sur Oger and 30% Pinot Noir from Ambonnay, including 3% still Pinot Noir which gives the wine its delicate salmon hue. ---- "A fine, lacy mousse enfolds the chalky underpinning and firm acidity of this harmonious rosé in a creamy swathe of texture, carrying a finely detailed range of ripe white cherry and strawberry fruit, toast point and chopped almond flavors. Hints of pink grapefruit zest and pickled ginger show on the crisp finish. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir." - 92 points, Wine Spectator

NV  

Brut Premier Cru ---- 70% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Noir, 5% Pinot Meunier ---- "A harmonious Champagne, well-knit and chalky in texture, with flavors of white cherry, salted almond, cassis and blood orange peel. Creamy finish. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier." - 91pts, Wine Spectator

NV  

"When Cyril Brun was briefed to recreate this iconic cuvée, he struggled to achieve the plenitude and drama he was looking for. Then, he dug in the Heidsieck archives and discovered, as he tells it, that the famous vintages of Charlie, while vintaged on paper, actually contained reserve wines. Brun therefore gave himself carte blanche to draw on the house's best lots to put together the inaugural NV Champagne Charlie, based on the 2016 vintage but incorporating fully 78% reserve wines dating back two decades. Bursting with aromas of golden orchard fruit, brioche, honeycomb, peaches, spices and buttery pastry, it's full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with a layered core of fruit, racy acids and a beautifully refined pinpoint mousse. Some 52% of the blend is Chardonnay, with Brun looking for ripe, exotic Chardonnay to complement more tensile lots of Pinot Noir. It's a compelling, flamboyant wine—the only thing that may make consumers smart is the price." - 96pts WA

NV  'Leonard'

Rosé Grand Cru 'Cuvée Léonard' Vines planted to pure chalk soils. 19% of the blend is Pinot Noir vinified as a still red wine. 50% is blanc de Noir from Pinot Noir and 50% is Chardonnay. This large percentage of still red wine results in a very vinous and powerful Rose. 70% of harvest 2020 and 30% reserve wines of a solera begun in 1968. Vinified nine months sur lies Aged 3 years sur lattes. Dosage 7g/l. Current release disgorged June 2023

2009  Avize Grand Cru

"Complex aromas of flowers and citrus fruits; crystal-clear base, as dense as it is transparent, crystalline structure, taut like a bow, eternally long, with fresh notes of green pomelo; great wine, by far the best version of this vineyard cuvée!" - 20/20 points, Vinum Wine

2018  Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut

Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut ---- 100% Chardonnay ---- "The 2018 Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs les Grandes Crayères 1er cru is a savory, intensely mineral and driven wine.  Chalk, mint, white flowers and dried herbs all grace this linear, taut Champagne.  The Crayères is understated and classy from start to finish.  It’s classic Lahèrte all the way.  Dosage is 2-4 grams per liter.  Disgorged November 2021."

2022  base 2022, Disgorged 3/25, 9 extra months sur latte

2nd release. Extended-age disgorgement.

2007  Gonet-Médeville Grand Cru Extra Brut

100% organically farmed Chardonnay from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Champs d'Alouettes. It is usually blended for Cuvée Théophile and is vinified separately only in the best vintages. Xavier and Krug are the only two houses to own vineyards in this site. Vinified in neutral barrels for six months prior to bottling. No chaptalization, malolactic fermentation or fining. Aged on the lees for 9 years before release. Dosage 2.5 g/L ----- "Complex, aging aromas of pastry and leather, hints of quince and smoke; Creamy in the mouth, ripe to enjoy now. Pale onion skin color. Spicy, floral citrus fruits and redcurrant on the incisive nose. Sharply delineated blood orange and bitter red berry skin flavors are complemented by notes of white pepper and mace, with a hint of smokiness in the background. Closes dry and tight, with echoing spiciness and very good persistence." - 18/20pts Jancis Robinson

2007  Gonet-Médeville Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs

(Slightly scratched label) Gonet-Médeville Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs ---- "Features fragrant aromas of jasmine and stargazer lily that waft through a lovely range of white cherry, chopped almond and candied ginger flavors and a rich, underlying streak of salinity. Plush in texture, with the detailed flavor range structured by a mouthwatering, crystalline frame of acidity." - 94pts, Wine Spectator ---- "You’d think the debut of Gonet-Médeville’s 2007 Grand Cru ‘Louvière’ would be met with deafening fanfare and critical acclaim. Instead, just 60 bottles were quietly ushered into America, making this one of the year’s greatest, rarest, and most clandestine Champagnes." - Mark Osburn, Sommelier & Champagne Specialist ---- "What made me want to make Champagne was wines from '29, '45, '55, '59, '61, '64 - I want to make wines like that", says Xavier. You need have no fear of cellaring these wines to see how they evolve, however delicious they are now. ---- Louvière is very crispy, intense, crystalline and pure, definitively a great Champagne for aperitif while Champ d'Alouette is much more powerful, complex and gastronomic. Dosage: 2g/l Time on lees: 11 years (disgorged in 2019)

2020  Coteaux Champenois Rouge Charmont

Coteaux Champenois Rouge ---- ""The finest release of this cuvée so far is the 2020 Coteaux Champenois Mareuil-sur-Aÿ Hommage à Camille, an intensely flavored but weightless red that offers up aromas of dark berries, spices, cinnamon and cloves. Medium-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with lively acids and powdery structuring tannins, it concludes with a delicately oak-inflected finish. As readers will remember, it derives from a 0.43-hectare parcel in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ lieu-dit Charmont that was planted with Burgundian Pinot Noir selections in 2002 and farmed with the intention of producing a still wine. It's matured in one-third new oak, including some 500-liter barrels, from Taransaud, Séguin Moreau and Lagrange." - William Kelley, The Wine Advocate