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Bravo!!!
Lousy wine. Terrible review
Tons of “cult 90+ pointers” deserve this rant more than Veuve Cliquot.
With the strengthening of the dollar maybe some of these wines will reach some level of affordability. I think I last bought this for about 30 bucks - it is not so lousy for me as it is just so not interesting. I think I can get some New Mexican sparkling that is more interesting…
Veuve does stink, but the average person has heard of it, so it will dominate wine lists no matter how many people rant about it. Nothing will ever change that.
Davis, are you old enough to remember when Chateau St. Jean’s single vineyard Chards and SBs were “known and on all the lists”?. Now they are on the bottom shelf at the supermarket. Like Veuve, they are also no longer the same wines AT ALL.
The NV Veuve isn’t that bad, though they did go through a period of 10 years or so where they were pretty bland. The wine has returned to form in recent years, but it has been overtaken by a myriad of grower Champagnes that have more character and are better QPRs.
I am not familiar with Chateau St. Jean.
St Jean was a BIG DEAL winery in Sonoma, famous for their highly allocated and on all the right lists Robert Young Vineyard Chardonnay and Le Petite Etoille Sauvignon as well as a slew of late harvest wines, all made by David Arrowood. Later they scored big when their Cinque Cepages red was the Spectator’s WOTY.
Now, no one really cares…
Love it!
Except IMO, St-Jean never was any good for the “dry” wines. Arrowood just left a lot of residual sugar in them (the ur-KJ) which a lot of people liked, but I found hideous.
True enough- but what, for me anyway, makes Veuve an especially frustrating situation is that they once made very good wine. Back in the late 90s when I was in wine retail, I sold a lot of yellow label and I recommended it every day. It was, at the time, one of the best readily available choices in its price range and well rounded enough that it would appeal to a wide audience.
Now, at a time when demand and the push for quality are at incredibly high levels they have chosen to make a sloppy sweet wine and exact a pretty steep price for it. In many ways, it is still a wine of some quality- but that finish just ruins it.
Today I would put VC in the same category as Korbel.
And unlike Moet, the change at VC goes right to the top- even La Grande Dame is a much lesser wine that it could be, and once was.
This is insulting to the wine consumer. True, most will never know or care that they could do better- but for we who know it is still insulting.
I have a new favorite wine reviewer. Can’t wait to see the Silver Oak review.
Should re-name the site Wine Schadenfreude.
Coming soon.
Nilay
750 mL
Nilay, have you seen our holiday window banner?
Do you have this in a medium?
Wait … wait. Veuve is French - right? And France is the gold standard when it come to wine???
Am I missing something? 
Exactly. And nice to see Gruet making it on to a lot of high-end wine lists. Recently saw it at L2o.
I don’t know man - I really am not a big fan of Veuve’s NV. Have had some really dire experiences for sure. However, I must say that theiy do make very decent vintage wines. I have had some really good old Grande Dames, and one single bottle of 1985 Cuvee Rare Rose is amongst the best bottles of Champagnes I have had in some time.