I had the new Chartogne Les Barres Pinot Noir at the annual.Champagne holiday tasting at a favorite local.store. It was stunning tasted right out of the box and was quite unique and delicious . Of course I am getting 6 bottles as this particular wine matches everything I look for in bubbly.
NV Chartogne-Taillet Champagne Pinot Noir Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut MV Les Barres- France, Champagne (12/15/2019)
We opened this last night and I stoppered it up and stuck the remaining few ounces back in the fridge for retasting today. Disgorged June 2019, 4-5 g/l dosage, 100% PN. Bit leesy and what seems like a toasted note, which makes sense as I do believe the wines are raised in wood. I am really enjoying this, as it has some nice structure that leans out some of the fruit, alongside some raspberry, tangy red apple, fresh squeezed lime and some lime zest. I actually think this tastes better to me today than it did last night as all of the flavors are working well together, and there is a seamless, pure feel to the wine. Terrific.
Alexandre poured this at the Theise tasting in NY ~a month ago. It’s great. 15-14-13-12 combination. I think the ‘15 is higher percentage of the blend. Easily one of my favorites at the tasting.
Guys, I almost made the same mistake, as when I bought my bottle, I had originally hauled 3 of them up to the counter to checkout. And then I remembered a post here in Wine Talk, something about it being Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier bottled separately from Les Barres. I pulled up that thread real fast and realized what I was doing. I ended up putting two of the bottles back as I wanted to try it first, especially too since it was not the Pinot Meunier, which was my purpose for driving to get the bottles in the first place. So, it’s not totally clear to some of us that the distinction exists. We know there is one now but for me, until this point, Les Barres had always meant Pinot Meunier, not just to me but to others, too.
Glad I was able to try an amazing wine from one of my favorite producers before you did Frank, and knowing from your previous tasting notes knew that this was a wine that would be right in your wheelhouse. It being a brand new bottling that was only released in September I thought you probably were unaware of it yet. Sorry for the confusing title of the post BUT at least I did link to the exact wine so if folks click on the link they hopefully realize the mistake. I have edited the original heading.
Frank I suspect that once you try it, you might find it is even better than the Pinot Meunier which I love also, but tough choice to make as they are both quite distinctive.
Dave Bueker, I would love to hear your feelings on this bottling. There is very tiny quantity of wine produced from this bottling hence they had to combine the 12.13,14,15 vintages. Westside wines does have a little and their holiday Champagne gala is where I tried it.
The Pinot Noir has a black label, different than the normal Meunier bottling. Also, per Alexandre, this is a one-off as he plans to use this fruit to beef up the Cuvee St. Anne going forward.