|
My Fizzy
Valentine...
Valentine's day 2009. It's a Saturday and
since most restaurants will end up full of couples more
interested in themselves than any food or wine for that
matter, I thought it a useful move to taste some rose
champagne instead. So the panel was convened on a
promise of pot roast Scottish venison afterwards and
obviously plenty of champagne.
I normally start off any tasting,
especially the Saturday evening ones, with a bottle of
champagne but this time that would really be overkill.
(Does overkill exist when it comes to champagne?)
Anyway, I raided the cellar and found the perfect
aperitif, imported from the Champagne region in May
2008. It was a bottle of Ratafia from Laurent-Perrier.
Ratafia is a wine fortified with Marc de Champagne and
tends to be served as an aperitif in the cafes of Reims
and Epernay. It can be compared to Port but comes across
sweeter and more honeyed and orangey. The good ones have
enough acidity to balance out the obvious sweetness and
well-chilled they are a pleasure to drink. This
particular example had that sweet caramel and honeyed
nose and some lovely bitter orange flavours on the
palate. Balancing acidity made it perfectly enjoyable.
On to the headline then, champagne. I had
chosen six champagnes that are quite readily available
and most are well-known brands. Prices vary from around
£30 to £60. None of the wines were absolutely awful,
which is rather fortunate and it shows that the rose
category is taken fairly seriously in Champagne. This is
no doubt because they command a hefty premium on the
standard cuvees.
The wines were tasted blind and I'll
discuss them below in order of tasting. There was no
clear favourite and four champagnes were regarded as
very good by the entire panel, so favourites were just a
matter of taste in this case.
Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin
Rose NV
I first tasted this in Reims when visiting the house of
VCP and it's good as ever. A rich strawberry nose with a
real mineral streak. Somewhat closed at first it starts
to show once it warms up a little in the glass to give
more biscuity notes.
Soft creamy mousse and quite an acidic
kick of summer fruits making it really fresh. It's
lacking a little in complexity and I think it would
reward a year or so in the cellar to bring it out. The
blend is predominantly Pinot Noir (around 55%) with
about 15% Pinot Meunier and the rest Chardonnay with a
fairly substantial percentage of reserve wines used (on
average around 30%).
Maillart
Brut Rose NV Grand Cru
From a family owned estate this is 30% Chardonnay with
the rest Pinot Noir. Leaving the juice on the skins for
about two days creates a deep salmon pink colour. The
nose has a hint of biscuits but is very ripe strawberry
fruit throughout, although just a touch too confected
for my liking. The high acidity hits you instantly and
continues throughout the mid-palate, but it's lacking a
little in actual fruit.
This one didn't stand the comparison very
well but it was the cheapest out of the lot and is still
very drinkable, just outclassed.
Taittinger
Brut Prestige Rose NV
Beautiful onion skin colour. Fabulous savoury nose,
toasty, biscuity complexity underlying the fresh red
fruit.
Instant attack, savoury mushroom
underneath sharp berry fruit. Dry, muscular with a long
complex finish.
A very complete champagne with a
fantastic balance and structure. I initially wavered
between Bollinger and Veuve Clicquot, pronouncing it
Veuve Clicquot in the end. Definitely one of my
favourites. Again a blend of 30% Chardonnay and 70%
Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims, south of the city
of Reims.
Nicolas Feuillatte
Brut Rose NV
60% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier and 10% Chardonnay. A
lovely champagne with a medium salmon pink hue. A fresh
berry nose which is quite elegant and focussed. I like
it for its soft creamy mousse, followed by the fresh
summer berry fruit from the nose. Very refreshing, round
and well balanced fruit and acidity. If you could fault
it you could argue it's lacking a little complexity but
it makes a perfect aperitif or a great partner to a light fruity dessert.
I deliberately chose to include this
champagne as it's a large volume, mid-price brand and it
is imported into the UK by Thierry's, the biggest French
wine importer into the UK. As I will be spending a month
working with Thierry's during the summer I thought I'd
get some practice in and was pleasantly surprised with
this one, snob that I am.
Lanson
Brut Rose NV
A very unusual colour. Much lighter than any of the
other it's more towards gold with a hint of pink. The
nose is buttery, creamy with that hint of fresh bakery
and almond.
A very soft mousse, no aggression
whatsoever there. The palate was a little flat and not
greatly complex with a more savoury note and a medium
length. It's quite unusual but I couldn't help thinking
this was a little one-dimensional and just lacked some
fruit intensity.
Bollinger
Brut Rose NV
Dominated by Pinot Noir and some Chardonnay this has a
nice coppery hue. Earthy, savoury and something leafy,
almost herbal. I struggled to describe it until someone
said kiwi skin and that sort of got it. This is not your
run-of-the-mill sweet pink juice but a much more
structured grown up champagne. The palate is showing
fresh berry fruit but is showing complexity and a
somewhat tannic structure. Very dry but incredibly
well-balanced and rich. I recognised this as Bollinger
for it's masculine structure and balance and it is a
fantastic and unique rose that will happily live in your
cellar for a few years. I don't think I can wait though.
Considering most of the wines were pretty
good we didn't struggle to leave the bottles unfinished
and I found it difficult pinpointing which would be my
'Fizzy Valentine', so I decided to have four; Taittinger,
Nicolas Feuillatte, Veuve Clicquot and Bollinger. You
can bring me a bottle of them any day.
Related articles:
Veuve
Clicquot Visit
Panel Tasting Sparkling Wines
Champagne
Guide
Champagne
Champagne
Gardet |
