Not much traffic on this champagne so I’ll kick-start a new thread and see who wants to bite on some discussion. This is a cerebral champagne for me, one I stopped and thought a lot about as we enjoyed it. Well-built, transparent, clean and very good. As I told my wife as we drank this recent bottle (along with last year’s bottle), this bubbly won’t be for everyone because of style but for me, this is right in the zone of where I can enjoy my champagnes.
NV Vouette et Sorbée Champagne Fidèle- France, Champagne (3/11/2018)
Like last year’s bottle, this has a disgorge date of 12/2016. Couple things worth noting about context. This was the only wine on our table, and there’s nothing to follow-back on as I left the last glass of the bottle with the server. Through this context, I enjoyed three glasses. This must be built with a lower level of alc as it didn’t affect me like 3 glasses of wine would, which is why in part I love champagne. Next, the color of the wine, like the bottle from last year, shows just a hint of peach but to the eye, yet it cloaks any Pinot Noir color that the mind wants to see. This bottle really conveyed ‘place’, as the chalk and stern expression clearly come through: the soil is liquefied to the glass. The citrusy lime acid here also plays its role, adding that spine to the chalk’s frame. Then finally, the black cherry that was most evident in the final glass, when the bubbles had relaxed out of the wine. There is presence here, character. My sense is that this wine is going to last for a good while and continue to unfold, as it will need more time to do that and yet, I can really appreciate a wine as this one because it made me think, it tested my senses and reflects something raw and unique. Enjoyed this a lot.
Great note, Frank. This wine has LOADS of character. I find the entire range very distinctive, which of course means it can be divisive. I love it. And yes, there is this lime/citrus thing happening at the back end that I find really fascinating.
Great note, Frank. I really like this one. Agree with your sentiment above, last time I drank I thought, this is right in my wheelhouse for price, quality, interest, etc.
Good stuff.
Claus - Could you tell me more about Textures compared to Vouette et Sorbée’s other wines. The only amphora wines that I have had is Pheasant’s Tears wines. One of my wonderful wine guys had Textures in stock for a while…but dumb me did not order (blame my crummy budget).
The V et S wines are unique. Bertrand uses no chemicals in the vineyard and no sugar in the winery. And I may get corrected by smarter voices like Brad Baker or others, but he’s about as natural, biodynamic and unadulterated as it gets in the Aube, probably even in the north, too. I appreciate that, and I dig his zero dosage style.
I am doing a taste off between:
Vouette et Sorbée Fidèle R14, disgorged 5/1/2014
Val-Frison Goustan R13, disgorged 12/2015
Not the perfect taste off in terms of vintage, still a fabelous compairson of similar terrior and wine making philosphy.
Frank - Thanks for keeping one my of my fave producers Vouette et Sorbée Fidèle on the radar. I look forward to hearing more about your Vouette et Sorbée adventures.
Dennis - Vouette et Sorbée Fidèle is totally in my wheelhouse for quality, style - and yes it makes the Mary Stingo-meter price point.
Jason -Vouette et Sorbée Saignée is on my ‘want to try’ list.
I’ve had this wine probably a dozen times, over many years and disgorgements, with variable experiences. Sometimes it hits the high of highs, and other times it’s been off or muted. The gamble can really pay off when they’re on.
Mary, I am just getting back now from Paris for what was 2 weeks. Within this time, we did a week in Champagne and I did my very last visit of the week with Bertrand Gautherot. Most certainly, this is a vigneron that deeply believes in what he does, and why he does it. I will be doing a blog starting this week once the jet lag wears off, and I took about 20 photos with Bertrand as we walked his vineyard. The highlight of my time with him, and the only wine I tasted with him, was him pulling a dusty bottle of 2006 Fidele off his riddling rack that was unlabeled. He took it to the driveway in front of the winery, yanked off the metal cap and we drank it on a Friday at 5PM together. Gotta say, that was one of the best moments of the trip. I hope you will enjoy my upcoming post about Vouette et Sorbee, as Betrand told me a lot and I just had to keep up with my pen.
Frank - Thank you for your genoristy in sharing your visit with Bertrand. I can only imagine how it was to taste an unlabeled 2006 Fidèle in the company of the winemaker himself! I look forward to your impressions of that bottle! Thank you for posting the pictures -they help set the story - so to speak.
It has been too long since I was in or near Paris. In another life, I studied flute at the Conservatoire Américain of the Écoles d’Art Américaines in Fontainebleau- which was about 45 minutes outside of Paris by train (the slow pokey ones back in the 80s). I hope that you had a fabelous trip, again thank you for sharing your adventures.
I look forward to reading your blog, please post the link here
