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Cellar Favorite: 1991 Vilmart & Cie Brut Cœur de Cuvée
France: Champagne, Cellar Favorites
, Apr 2017
What a treat it is to taste Vilmart’s 1991 Cœur de Cuvée. Proprietor Laurent Champs opened two bottles on my most recent visit. The first was a relatively recent disgorgement from 2013, the second was the original disgorgement from 1999. I much preferred the original release, which was, paradoxically, far fresher and more nuanced than the late release.
2016 Champagne: Harvest Report
France: Champagne, featured
, Apr 2017
My annual spring tastings of vins clairs suggest 2016 is an uneven vintage in Champagne. The wines I tasted were on the softer, more open-knit side of things relative to how vins clairs show in the very best vintages. Of course, vins clairs will go through several transformations as they are blended and bottled to become Champagne, and then aged prior to being disgorged and ultimately released, a process that takes a minimum of a few years. These are some early observations.
Vinous Table: La Gare, Le Mesnil sur Oger, France
France: Champagne, Vinous Table
, Mar 2017
La Gare is an ideal place to stop by for an informal meal while visiting wineries and vineyards in Champagne’s Côte des Blancs. Housed in a former train station, La Gare is full of old world, countryside charm.
Cellar Favorite: 1993 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rosé
France: Champagne, Cellar Favorites
, Mar 2017
The 1993 Comtes de Champagne Rosé has not changed much since I last tasted it three years ago. Soft, aromatically open and super-expressive, the 1993 possesses exceptional balance and class.
Champagne: The Season’s New Releases
France: Champagne, featured
, Dec 2016
Readers will find a bevy of compelling, delicious Champagnes in the market this fall. Many of the current non-vintage releases are based on 2013, a year that, while inconsistent, yielded wines with healthy sugars and terrific balance at a number of top-performing houses. At the upper end, a number of houses have new tête de cuvées that are or will soon be in the market. As always, the stylistic breadth that Champagne offers makes it one of the most versatile and fascinating of all wines.
1971 Krug Vintage - Magnum
France: Champagne, Cellar Favorites
, Oct 2016
Krug’s 1971 Vintage, tasted from magnum, is truly spectacular.
Cellar Favorites: Taittinger: 1996 & 1995 Comtes de Champagne
France: Champagne, Cellar Favorites
, Oct 2016
Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne has long been a personal favorite. Among other things, Comtes ages spectacularly well, is relatively easy to find (despite its small production) and is very well priced for the quality relative to its peers.
Champagne: The 2016 Summer Preview
France: Champagne, featured
, Aug 2016
Continuing a tradition at Vinous, our Summer Preview highlights the best new releases coming into the market. Full coverage of new releases will follow in the fall.
Champagnes Salon & Delamotte 1959-2007
France: Champagne, Verticals & Retrospectives, featured
, Jun 2016
Salon remains one of Champagne’s most mystical and elusive wines. Since 1905, the house has declared just thirty-nine vintages. This vertical tasting of Salon and sister property Delamotte provided a great opportunity to revisit a number of reference point vintages and also taste the latest releases.
1929 Louis Roederer Brut
France: Champagne, Cellar Favorites
, May 2016
Roederer’s 1929 Brut is impossibly beautiful. Wearing the graceful patina of age, the 1929 is more of a wine than a Champagne. Hints of apricot jam, spice and orange-infused oil grace the palate in a silky, wonderfully pliant Champagne endowed with remarkable brilliance, purity and freshness, especially for its age.