CHAMPAGNE - THE NEXT CHAPTER

 When I started this blog I never aimed at making it a major thing. The sole purpose of it has always been to keep notes on Champagne.

That was nearly a decade ago and a lot of Champagnes later it transpired through long days in isolation due to covid19 that it is time to move on and tell another story.

So, whomever, ever read these 'pages' thank you for reading about my adventures.

There is something in the making that I will post the update on here, but eventually this blog will cease to serve its purpose.

Alone but never lonely!

Peter

17TH INTERNATIONAL CHAMPAGNE DAY

There are times, when I drink more and there are, naturally, times when I drink less. The last Champagne year wasn't as filled with Champagne as others were, but I was not dry.

This year, I also started using Riedel's Veritas Champagne glass which I had tested before and the results couldn't have made drinking Champagne more enjoyable.

There are few wines that I thought were exceptional, but one really stood out. Champagne Lallier Grand Rose Grand Cru. In a few words the aromas that just punched me when I first drank it were of pure strawberry and mint. An odd combination, but it worked.

I cannot ignore that I had another bottle of Pierre Peters Blanc des Blancs but because of my biased expectations on the day I drank it, I could not declare it as the Champagne of the year.

Although the day to celebrate this remarkable tipple is a few days behind, still, if you can, indulge in a bottle of Lallier!

Alone but never lonely!

Drink, think and believe Champagne.

p.

GUSBOURNE ROSE - ENGLISH FIZZ

Given the experience of this tipple, I shall be very brief.

The blurb of the producer that the wine feel like English summer, 'strawberries and apples', did make me wonder: 'they must buy the strawberries in Tesco and in January'.

Sadly, this wine had a price tag of a Champagne, but it was no (-where-near) Champagne (quality).

Won't be rushing into buying one anytime soon, if ever.

NON-CHAMPAGNE ENTRY - BUT - QUARTET - AKA ROEDERER ESTATE (USA) NV

Well well! For anyone interested in drinking wine, it is always nice to drink something interesting.

Quartet, which is what in Europe is the same cuvee as in the USA, Roederer Estate became my companion on one evening. I have known this wine for a few years. I drank it a few times as a good alternative, in fact a cheaper one, to a decent Champagne; for your information, this 'excuse' developed around 2008 when I finally managed to lay my hands on my first bottle and drank it.

Since then, I had had it a few times and somehow, quiet possible for drinking just Champagne, this fizz, outside of our glamorous patch, definitely impressed my palette and encouraged me to write about it.

Quartet (EU), Roederer Estate (USA) is a Chardonnay dominated blend from California, had indeed, redefined the concept of a new world fizz.

At first the wine has a wonderfully lively nose of citrus. Though, that is, what I remember it to be; today's bottle, however, seems a little more aged.

Slight buttery notes with a hint of toasted hazelnuts and dried apricots, green and red apples where you think that only cinnamon is missing to complete a complete strudel taste leaves one wondering. The outstanding balance in respect of the taste is a testament to the excellence of blending skills from Louis Roederer.

That is however, at best, unsurprising; their skill to deliver on excellence is imbued in the name itself, but...

... what a fizz!

It didn't even need to come from Champagne!

Alone, but never lonely!

Drink, live and think Champagne.


hmmm, this wine shows a remarkable aging potential. The layers!!!!!

Peter

PIERRE PAILLARD - LES PARCELLES - CHAMPAGNE - MAGNUM

Relatively recently, at a friend's house, and on the last evening of my visit, I thought a Champagne experience was inevitable and my thoughts were leaning towards a magnum, and how it benefits the tipple; more importantly how the benefits manifest themselves in the experience of the tipple.

Chance had had it that there was nothing exciting on the shelves but the same chance had let me take it on another, completely unknown (to me) fizz. In other words, Pierre Paillard Les Parcelles was the only Champagne available in magnum. I didn't hesitate very long, which, as you may know, is a rare event, but I thought: 'a Grand Cru, from Bouzy' could turn out interesting! I think taking a chance on a unknown Champagne is the ultimate expression and extent of my gambling.

The joy of ignorance is in its bliss; the joy of Champagne is in the bottle, and little did I know only to be pleasantly surprised what a seductive, intellectually compelling this wine would turn out.

A lean-mean-elegant-classic-Champagne-machine on the palette and on the nose. Long, flirty, with a masculine drive casts a pretty dark shadow on some of the giants in the region. This sexy chemo-sensory stimulus is a tipple that has just added itself on to the list of 'assess again', but I couldn't just wait to complete my rule of 3 and then share the joy of drinking this perfection.

And the wine was another Champagne perfection.

Bollinger might be Absolutely Fabulous, but Pierre Paillard's Les Parcelles was Absolutely Perfect. This, of course, is just my current view on the tipple and I will of course review it again and again just to ensure that my reader doesn't feel cheated.

A MUST!


P.S. I must have had the virtually the whole magnum to myself, even though I was sharing my enthusiasm of this wine with an obliging audience, along with the wine, but on the following day I was told that I had fallen asleep on the bar stool in the kitchen. Oh well...

16TH INTERNATIONAL CHAMPAGNE DAY

So it is the time of the year when I usually sum up what I have been drinking in the past year and let my beloved reader know what were the outstanding tipples.

Previously, I had raved about the Chardonnay Jewel of Champagne, namely Mesnil-Sur-Oger's cooperative branded, Le Mesnil, however there was another nectar that I have yet to mention and write about separately.

I also reunited myself with Bonnaire which became my go to when I visited many of my friends across Europe. Elegance and richness of the cuvees make them an outstanding nectar at a very good price, but, sadly, and probably for the better, access to it in certain countries isn't great.

At last, but of course not least, and I will write about the following tipple in a greater details soon, was an unheard-of tipple from Bouzy under the brand of Pierre Paillard.

So despite the considerably reduced Champagne intake of the last year, there is still space for new and exciting creations from this sensational region.

And these are just my suggestions for this year's International Champagne Day; as always.

Enjoy the 18th August 2018 and toast to the greatest drink at 18:00 wherever on earth you might be!

Think, Drink, Believe Champagne!

LE MESNIL - THE CHARDONNAY JEWEL WTH ANOTHER ONE OF ITS FACETS

I have written about this tipple before. Everytime I drink it, I am astonished at what this simple non-vintage shows in its liquid form. May it be because it is a chardonnay or champagne or simply just grand cru, this wine rocks on all fronts!

Not only did this tipple set a bar a high enough, it actually exceeded it; a sensational experience after sensational experience. Too few can be ascribed that!

Recently, I was surprised to find a bottle at £25 (CAD 50.00) that, of course had stood on the shelf for ages (who knows about this obscure house anyway?), so naturally, the storage wasn't ideal. In fact, probably second to being cooked in the Sun or near a hot element.

But still this wine showed impressive qualities! Ripe, big with notes of exotic fruits dominated by pineapple the wine showed qualities of a superb Chardonnay that can put some more famous wines from the Cotes des Blancs to shame.

Although, a basic non-vintage, this wine is a cuvee de prestige at a price where others add another zero to it! And I am not the only one recognising that! Certain department stores do actually stock it, but, at nearly double the price!

So I guess, Le Mesnil is wining this year's prize of MY FAVOURITE CHAMPAGNE NOW.

At least now I know what I will be drinking on the day of 16th INTERNATIONAL CHAMPAGNE DAY

....well, at least I made up my mind there. :)