Huh?!? Ace of Spades the #1 Champagne?

Now… I’m the first to admit the wine isn’t bad and would be a decent buy at $55-$65, but this is ridiculous. What the heck were the other 990 Champagnes these folks tasted??? Am I completely missing something here?

From: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11889848/Armand-de-Brignac-Rated-the-Worlds-1-Champagne

1,000 Champagnes were blind-tasted by the world’s most respected wine critics and sommeliers recently. The results were published in Fine Champagne magazine, the only international publication devoted to Champagne and a renowned authority on the industry.

Each Champagne was rated on a 100-point scale. The process was so strict that, if judges’ assessments were more than four points apart, the Champagne would be tasted again and reassessed.

When the results were weighed, the top 10 included many classic names. The surprise first-place finisher was Armand de Brignac Brut Gold, with a taste score ranking No 1 among the world’s best Champagnes.
The Top 10

  1. 96p Armand de Brignac Brut Gold
  2. 95p 2000 Dom Pérignon
  3. 94p 1998 Mumm Cuvée R. Lalou
  4. 94p 2002 Roederer Cristal
  5. 94p 2000 Egerier de Pannier
  6. 94p 1998 Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill
  7. 93p 1998 Dom Pérignon Rosé
  8. 93p 1999 Jacquart Blanc de Blancs
  9. 93p 2002 Roederer Cristal Rosé
  10. 93p NV Chartogne-Taillet Fiacre.

Of the competition’s results, Fine Champagne editor-in-chief, Pekka Nuikki, said: “Our highest rating went to Armand de Brignac: a fine, smooth and creamy Champagne with underlying power and great mineral freshness. The panel praised the wine for its classic style and perfect drinkability today that doesn’t compromise its ageing capacity. It has everything a truly great Champagne can offer, and the packaging – the distinctive, showy golden ‘ace of spades’ bottle – serves as a brilliant example of Armand de Brignac’s courageous, successful branding.”

This extraordinary recognition crowns a series of accolades accumulated from expert critics, journalists, and wine lovers all over the world.

“To be selected as the best-tasting Champagne in the world is a remarkable achievement, but to receive such an award in a large blind-tasting competition is testimony to the quality of our product,” said Jean-Jacques Cattier, head winemaker of Champagne Armand de Brignac and the estate’s patriarch. “It is a further incentive to continue making the best Champagne in the world for those who are truly passionate about the art of Champagne.”

Obviously you are not hip to the scene, beatches. Get Sadat X on this shit stat. [berserker.gif]

Not like I’d ever drink this thing, but I’m willing to bet it’s not even the #1 Champagne from Cattier…

Keith,

It isn’t. Clos du Moulin clearly is and you can make a case for the vintage Cuvee Renaissance as well (although I think the Ace of Spades shows similarities to both this cuvee and the NV Brut Antique).

Yes, that’s what I was alluding to, but Clos du Moulin is already hard enough to find.

But does P Diddy know what Clos du Moulin is? Therein lies the rub. pepsi

We can dispute this all day, but I think we can all agree that Ace of Spades is the #1 Motorhead album of all time.

Now were talking!

I don’t know if everyone had to taste every wine, or just as much as possible before voting, but either way, that’s a crap load of young Champagne to be consuming in one sitting. Lord knows the most accessible one is going to win over the judges.

That article is quite vague. Who are these “most respected” tasters? Over how long did they taste these alleged 1000 wines? As Ian pointed out, I would doubt highly that they devoted enough time to give each wine a fair shot (I’m assuming these people have jobs if they’re the “most respected”). This sounds a lot like one of those Consumer Reports tasting panels, one of which rated Andre above Veuve Clicquot, as I recall. I don’t know if anyone’s ever seen this magazine, but I have looked through a Fine magazine, its parent publication. It looked like a ripoff of World of Fine Wine (I was hesitant to even name that great publication in a post about such silliness) that read more like Wine Spectator. I probably have more faith in the reviews of Wine Spectator (harsh, I know, but at least they’re not pretending to be more serious than they are and trying to cater to an audience which their content will not satisfy). I guess I should stop my rant now; I’m sure there are some nice, competent people writing and/or editing for this publication, but I would never read it.

+1 [welldone.gif]

Cattier (Armand de Brignac) Brut Gold may be the favourite of rap stars, but give me Pol Cuvee Winnie* any day; that’s the way I like it, baby, I don’t want to live forever!

How can I not love a wine discussion board that not only mentions Lemmy** but shows a video of him?

Cheers,
David.

*Or many other top fizzes: Clos des Goisses, Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee, Gimonnet Collection VV, Billecart-Salmon Cuvee NF (and their Blanc des Blancs vintage), Bolly VVF, Krug, Cristal, any Roses de Jeanne wine, and I am sure many others.

**If I may tell of bad behaviour at school: I once said to the teacher in a music lesson, “But miss, Lemmy from Motorhead cannot read music either and he must earn a thousand times what you do.” To her credit she simply replied, “Arse.” I was suitably chastised.

Maybe they were blinded by the shiny bottle flirtysmile

They tested a thousand wines!

Like their Champagne (all marketing hype).

Take care
Rip

The partner tells me this magazine is a Finnish publication (he is of Finnish extraction himself) and goes on to add that as such it cannot be trusted in the slightest to accurately report even such things as the colour of the sky on a summer’s day. Seems a bit harsh, but based on the results of this (supposedly) epic tasting he could well be right.

Cheers,
David.

Move over, Ace of Spades!

Sparkling performance: British fizzy wine beats world's top champagne-makers to be named best bubbly on the planet | Daily Mail Online" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Don’t you believe it, Keith. My all-too-frequent tastes of Nyetimber have always tended toward the 'No, no, take it away, please no more!"-end of wine experiences. I’ve had battery acid-themed Nyetimber and vastly oxidised examples as well. Perhaps I have been singularly unlucky with the bottles I’ve popped, after all some people like the stuff, but my general quality comment on these wines would be a remarkably charitable ‘No’.

Cheers,
David.

Not so fast there kaputnik. I think No Sleep til Hammersmith takes those honors – all the wonderfulness of the Fast Eddie era studio albumbs but with extra live-performance insanity.