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.
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
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?
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…
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.
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.