Two Great Champagnes From Magnum

WINE TALK
1

N.V. Laurent-Perrier Champagne Grand Siècle Les Reserves: From magnum a blend of 1990, 1993 and 1995. Extraordinarily fresh, precise and detailed. A fine and complex nose of white peach lemon, citrus blossom and bread. It is so direct, with fabulous depth of flavour. Bead is tiny, mousse creamy and length phenomenal. A truly great Champagne.

2002 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut: From Magnum. A rich and powerful Champagne with a high degree of elegance. Excellent volume in the mouth with a creamy feel and a fine line of minerally acidity. Fruit flavours are expressive and length drives on and on.

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I swear if I had space and funds for it, I might be tempted to buy all my champagne in magnum format. I

Those two sound wonderful.

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Geez those are some big boys! Jealousy 100

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Great and precise notes about some great, and as you state, precise bubbly Jeremy. Love the 02` Cristal in mag format or any other for that matter.

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Jeremy,
Thanks for the notes. Is the “Les Reserves” a late disgorgement of a regular Grand Siécle? I’ve really enjoyed the Grand Siécles, but find they need a lot of time even when the reserves have some age. I’ve recently opened what I believe was a '99-'02-'04 iteration which was still very young.
Cheers,
Warren

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I feel the same though I’d add “and had enough occasions with enough people to warrant a magnum”.

Especially these days I hesitate.

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those champagne stoppers work well at preserving for at least a couple days any bubbly that may happen on rare occasion to be left over.

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Just curious. How would the tasting notes be different if they were from a regular bottle?is something missing (no “x”)or is it just “less” of all of the above?

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Danius - I have no scientific basis for this, but my experience has been that champagne is almost always better - fresher, livelier and more flavorful from a magnum than a 750. It also ages better in that format.

Not to mention the fact that 750’s of champagne go way too quickly…

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Thanks Jud. I assume a double magnum is even better then. So how do we assess 100-point wines? I note that some critics gave 2008 Cristal 100 points. Is this for the 750 format, or the magnum format? If it is for the 750 format, then what happens with a magnum? I am taking the piss out of the scoring system here of course, but in some ways it is a legitimate question in terms of how a magnum makes a wine better and how a wine out of 750 may be less optimal.

I think I have had one champagne out of magnum, and it was more for the purpose of sharing with several people than for amplifying what a 750 would taste like. I didn’t have that wine out of 750, so I have no idea if it was a better wine out of magnum or not.

Sorry for the thread drift.

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I think it is a different composition to the regular Grand Siécle and it gets the extended lees contact but I’m not sure Warren. We also had a magnum of the standard Grand Siécle recently which was '02, '04 and '05 base I believe. It was also fantastic.

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I believe that it’s the same blend as the corresponding first release of Grand Siècle, just late disgorged.

I have a magnum of the same blend that you drank in my cellar, might open it in the next 12 months.