An epic rant on Veuve

WINE TALK
21

I love anti-Veuve rants as the stuff is complete plonk but the powerful distribution makes it a “brand” that we all have to deal with on wine lists.

22

Wish someone would start a Santa Margherita epic rant. rolleyes

23

I did a tasting this past Fall of sparkling wines that included VC, a couple of other big NMs, and then some of the better growers. I didn’t keep the wines on ice. Dosage becomes easily detectable in cool Champagne. At room temp, if your base wines are b******t, rookie tasters can tell. Dosage separates.

Ruinart BdB did okay.

24

One of my craziest ITB moments was a decent wine rep steeling himself and still cringing over having to show me the “Louis-Vuitton inspired” purses in which VC yellow would come.

25

As I posted on the thread about this on Wine Disorder… I would have relished this rant a lot more if it weren’t followed just a few posts down by a dreamy ode to LVMH NV Krug, which in my opinion has been barely more distinctive than NV Veuve ever since the new label came out.

26

Keith,

You and a number of others have said this about Krug Grande Cuvee and how the quality went down significantly with the label change and LVMH’s involvement.
I disagree.
I’d be happy to set up a blind champagne tasting and see if the Krug sticks out for its inferior quality and is easily identified. We can bet the food portion of the dinner tab.


27

Yes. Its a different french wine that is the gold standard. Just not this one

28

Agreed, a recent bottle of Krugh NV, disgorged around early 2009 was as strong a showing as I have ever had from a young bottle.

29

Sounds fun, what would you suggest putting it up against?

30

PS, to clarify, as you know I am a big fan of DP and Dom Ruinart, so I am hardly in a position to object to LVMH involvement as a general principle. I wouldn’t be saying I’ve found Krug NV boring if that wasn’t exactly the impression I got from the bottle. It’s not that it’s distasteful, it’s just that it used to be an intensely interesting wine, and for whatever reason I haven’t found that to be the case since the purple label.

31

I’d like to keep it double blind - do about 14 or so bottles from my cellar.

We can take this to email and set up the date and venue.

32

Now that is an overpriced wine. More expensive that Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve.

33

When I was in school we used to do a blind sparkling tasting every fall- French and American. The yellow label was at or near the bottom each time (keeping company with Nicholas Feuillatte). From what I remember, both times we tried it, it had a mercaptan-y burnt rubber aroma. Bleh.

34

The problem is that when I serve a kickass grower Champagne to non geek friends, they look disappointed. I can see in them thinking, “if she is such a bigshot wine expert, why is she giving me this cheap, unknown swill?” I gave up trying to explain that Veuve and some other well- advertised brands are plonk, because their eyes glaze over.

The other part that befuddles them is this: I prefer to drink Champagne and sparkling wine from a large white wine glass. I save my flutes for guests. The ONE time I used white wine glasses to serve bubblies, someone said, “YOU don’t have flutes?” [snort.gif]

35

Oh My! [truce.gif]

36

I think there are many wines out there more deserving of such a rant. Of course VC Yellow label isn’t terribly interesting, but I don’t think it’s terrible. Sure, there’s plenty of grower stuff out there that’s just a little more money that’s much better, but I just don’t get the hatred. I think a Moet rant (excluding DP) would be much more fitting.

As far as Krug NV, I had it at a tasting once and thought it was vastly overrated. Then I had it at dinner last night alongside a 2000 DP, a Billiot, and an Egly-Ouriet, and I thought the Krug was very good. Sure I think it might be a bit overpriced, but I liked it much more than I expected to.

I know a lot of people disagree with me here, but please realize that I don’t buy these products and I drink almost exclusively grower Champagne (with small cooperatives making up the rest). Still, I wonder if some people hate them because they want to. I respect what they’re doing and don’t think it’s completely fair to compare them to these grower Champagnes that are made in miniscule quantities and often not easy to come by.

37

In defense of NV Krug, maybe this was not the case for you have posted less than laudatory remarks- but I have found overs years of drinking the stuff that it really demands airing after opening as with the Rose and vintage bottlings. A few years in the cellar works wonders too, but at any age NV Krug needs a good hour of airing to show its best- and the change is substantial.

38

I see. So are writers only allowed to dislike one wine, or can we respond to what we drink when we drink it? If you prefer, we could drink all the world’s Champagne and then write a negative post about just one of them (White Star, Yellow, Tait, Andre, etc.). It seems more appropriate to drink and then simply write about the wine that move you. There’s plenty of room for me to bash or praise Moet (which I do indeed enjoy, even for an offdry).

39

This thread inspired me to do a blind comparison of NV Gruet Blanc de Noirs and NV Veuve Clicquot last night. Both are locally available. The Gruet gets a fair amount of love for a $16 cheapie, and I was curious to see how it would stand up the Veuve, which is twice the price and has been getting trashed here.

Wine 1 – very pale yellow, copious fine mousse, citrus, slight artificial peach nose, creamy mouthfeel, light-medium body, a bit flabby, sweet artificial flavor notes on palate, short finish, average. Guessing this is the Gruet, which I’ve never had before. (75 pts)

Wine 2 – pale yellow, a shade darker than wine 1, bread and toast plus citrus on nose, light-medium body, fruit and minerals and nice balancing acidity, bit of earth, medium finish, very good. (84 pts)

I was pretty sure which wine was which, based on past experience with the Veuve, even though I had never had the Gruet before. So perhaps there was some unavoidable bias. But there was a clear difference between the wines, and I think I described what I tasted.

Wine 1 – NV Gruet Blanc de Noirs. My wife, who also tasted these blind, didn’t find anything to like about this wine. I wouldn’t buy more, and uses the rest of the bottle for Mimosas today.

Wine 2 – NV Veuve Clicquot. Not a killer Champagne, and yes there are more interesting things around in the same price range, but they have come back from a very lackluster bunch of years. Not worthy of the bashing it’s been getting in this thread. IMHO, of course.

40

Krug Grand Cuvee is really nice old label, old old label, new label and the forthcoming slightly newer label. Just delicious. Of course the blends change with the vintage predominance so you will have some variations and the different age of the bottles.

I’d drink it every week at $100 which it seems to hit seasonally. I bought several 6 packs end of last year at $103 pb. Went back for a refill in maybe March and the distributor said oh no, it’s $199 now. I can drink older aged Champagne at $200 so I don’t buy it at that price, but it’s still delicious Champagne. I’d rather drink Krug GC over young Dom P, with rare exceptions.

Having tasted many Grand Cuvees with different bottle age and having met many folks from Krug…the notion that the Cuvee has somehow been “LVMHed” into something inferior seems preposterous to me.