Had a few friends over last week and we had a mini blind champagne tasting ot the following 2014’s.
Louis Roederer vintage
Louis Roederer Cristal
Philipponnat 1522
Vilmart Couer de Cuvée
Overall these 2014’s were all very nice wines and if if representative of the vintage 2014 is worth buying. We started with all four poured blind and just a bit of light charcuterie. Then after showing which was which we had them with dinner
The Cristal is a very nice wine which was remarkably open and enticing for a young Cristal. Probably this will close down but last Saturday it was very enjoyable. The Vilmart on the other hand was very tight and definitely needed a lot of air. Lots of citrus flavors, very long, and really good. The Philipponnat 1522 is very good as usual, but not with the depth and precision of the Cristal or Couer. And the 14 Roederer while really nice seemed a little light bodied.
They continued to open and evolve over the evening. The Roederer vintage definitely fleshed out and is a nice wine for the price. The Philipponnat 1522 which I have tried before is definitely a nice bottle, that needs some time to show its best. A few people picked the Vilmart to be the Cristal. All I can say is that Vilmart is a very fine wine for $120 and it seems to have a lot of future potential. Although I preferred the Cristal initially I kept going back to the Coeur and it was a better match with dinner.
A very fun and interesting tasting.
Off topic a question. Has anyone tried the 2018 Marguet Shaman Rose? Open one with some sushi.
My nephew’s birth year is 2014 so I have been finding excuses to buy some. Of those that I have tried that I enjoyed the most are Antoine Bouvet, Moussé Fils Terre d’ Illitte, Savart 1er Cru Le Mont des Chretiens. The Moussé of the 3 stands out being almost entirely Pinot Meunier grown on green clay soil - which in a way comes across on the palate in both taste & texture.
About a week ago I had the 18 Shaman rosé and funny enough it was with oysters & some crudo.
Yes, still the same. 2014 is an average vintage. There will be some good wines as there are in every vintage, but in general, 2014 isn’t anything I would get excited about especially when you have years like 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, and 2019 which are all clearly better from the decade of the 2010s.
2014 was a year where the early and late growing seasons were good, but the middle portion was cooler, darker, and wetter than normal. This resulted in grapes that were healthy and in good quantity, but vintage quality ripeness was tough to come by. September really saved the year as the weather was full of warmer than normal days, cooler nights, and quite a bit of wind that kept the grapes clean and really helped get the year at least up to the average level of quality IMO.
As in most of the more challenging years, Chardonnay did best across the entire region. For villages/regions, the Northern Montagne de Reims from Villers-Marmery to Ecueil was the star of the vintage. The Grande Vallee stretch from Aÿ to Cumières also performed nicely. The Côte des Blancs was solid, but nothing special and the Côte des Bars and Montgueux did well with Chardonnay.
fascinating. 2014 is such a good Chablis vintage and the two areas, Chablis and Champagne, are only 80 miles apart. I would have guessed a better Champagne year so nice to hear from a pro.
While the Crows Flight distance from Chablis to the Côte des Blancs is only around 80 miles, both the soil and climate change enough to make a big difference. As I noted, the southern areas of Champagne which are very close to Chablis did a nice job with Chardonnay in 2014, but most of those areas are planted to Pinot Noir.
Helpful thread. Time for me to put away the credit card, enjoy the bulk of the 10-14s (and small amount of 15-16s) I bought, and wait for the 18s and 19s to show up on the market.
Yeah. I’m always glad to learn. And especially glad to have him confirm I shouldn’t get worked up about 2014. I’d been lead to believe it was a strong vintage yet most every wine I’ve tried has been a letdown.
Brad
I know 2017 was rough, especially for Pinot.
What are your thoughts about 2016? Since you didn’t list it with the 12-13-15-18-19, I’m guessing you rate it mixed or mediocre? I know they had low yields due to frost and then hail. When I visited Vilmart they seemed upbeat about their 2016’s.
Except the problem is if you drink Champagne on a regular basis you can’t buy only the best vintages. Even on release they are quite tight and less than their potential. The lesser vintages drink better earlier and are valuable for cellar defenders and good sips on the porch. So what I’m saying is you can never really put away the credit card.
