NV Laherte Frères Champagne Rosé de Saignée Extra Brut Les Beaudiers- France, Champagne (1/1/2020)
I guess I just like Pinot meunier based wines. I tasted this blind and guess the varietal correctly. I have no idea who the producer might be. This is such a great wine with a low dosage. One of my favorite roses. It had a very nice sourdough bread note permeating from the glass, you don’t get that in a Rose very often.
I thought I would creatively ‘bump’ this thread as I want to make sure that people who have yet to see it can post their interest and mark their calendars. I’ll bump the thread every week with some new photos or a movie as we get closer. Please continue to post here in the thread if you plan to attend on March 12th.
Below are some photos. If you click on them, they’ll expand and view better. Of note, the vineyard source map is missing the plot for Longues Voyes, which is the Pinot Noir cuvee that is organically farmed by a friend of the family in Chamery (in the Montagne, not far from Vilmart). I plan to talk about this with Aurelien when we have him on.
Shoot. I can’t make this one, but I’ll look for the recording of it afterwards. Yesterday I picked up a couple more bottles at Rob Panzer’s new shop in anticipation of this. Thanks for putting these together, Frank.
Hey everyone. Just bumping the thread to keep the topic fresh for the week as new people see the event that is coming up on March 12th with Aurelien Laherte. In the spirit of sharing and to show my own support for these wines, I had a # of Laherte Freres bottles open this past weekend. These are all in retail (depending on where you live) so one of these can be a good target to open if you plan to attend the event.
Please keep posting your interest/support if you plan to attend.
2016 Laherte Frères Champagne Rosé de Saignée Extra Brut Les Beaudiers- France, Champagne (2/12/2022)
Wow, my note is first? September 2020 disgorgement. Served blind. Like past cuvees, this is more about power and density. Pours a darker hue of red (this is not peachy or colored lightly), with zesty cherry, strawberry, blood orange and a distinctly spicy finish.
NV Laherte Frères Champagne Rosé de Meunier Extra Brut- France, Champagne (2/11/2022)
Decided to open something Rose tonight, do a glass with dinner to celebrate the sun going down and it cooling off. . I have posted on this particular wine a number of times and I’m not shy about how much I like it. This particular bottle is the June 2021 disgorgement, my first from the 2021s. I had reloaded a handful of these a few months ago, probably the third or fourth time I’ve done that in the past couple years. The 2020 disgorgement was over and over my QPR wine of 2021… what you get for the price in these bottles is simply extraordinary. As for this particular disgorgement, there is more fruit and more upfront character than previous disgorgements that I can recall. The watermelon is here along with a perfectly ripe strawberry, black cherry, some grapefruit and citrus pith to help provide the lift. Really great balance and finish too. There’s a handful of Champagnes that I consistently heap praise on because they’re that good and that consistent and this for me is one of those few wines.
Hi everyone. Doing the weekly bump of this topic as we track towards March 12th. If you are seeing this post for the first time and would like to attend, please read the info in the first post and then add a reply if you plan to attend.
A few Laherte Freres wines from last week’s tasting, wanted to share them with you below, along with a few more photos to provide some cool visuals. I thought the photo of the 7 varietals was a cool visual in support of the Les 7 we opened in our group last week. And of note, I also poured the Sans Soufre Nature Chardonnay which for me was the better wine of the two. I ended up reloading more of the Chard I liked it so much.
NV Laherte Frères Champagne Les 7 Extra Brut- France, Champagne (2/17/2022) Blind Tasting with the guys (Maison Cafe in Dana Point, CA): I sourced this for the blind event we had last night. I had been curious to try this wine because of its unique composition: all 7 authorized Champagne grapes are used, in roughly equal amounts. And, the wine is built from a solera starting from 2005, the output of a small plot in Chavot planted by the family back in 2003 using all 7 varieties. Disgorged January 2021, with just a few grams of dosage. This is an interesting wine, with grapefruit, honeyed green apple, and some prickly structure, along with some red berry notes, like a bright raspberry. It’s expensive (I paid $110 US for it) yet was worth the study and experience. However, at the price, I would rather use my budget for the Autrefois or Craie Nature bottlings, both made by the family.
NV Laherte Frères Champagne Nature De Craie Premier Cru Brut Nature- France, Champagne (2/17/2022) Blind Tasting with the guys (Maison Cafe in Dana Point, CA): Second bottle this month. Disgorged May 2021, 100% Chard from Vertus and Voipreux (both in the CdB), made without sulfur and dosage. Last night’s bottle was poured blind as I wanted to see how the group would respond to the wine. The opinion on this was pretty consistent for high marks, as the chalk really came through, as did the lemon oil note. Mint, citrus zest, pounded rock aroma (chalk?) with depth and texture. This is a terrific Chardonnay, one that really does express the terroir nicely.
And what I think is really cool, a one minute video that showcases the various terroirs and the cuvées where that fruit goes. This is a safe Dropbox link where you can play the video.
I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed this other zoom. Thankfully when I ordered from Rob Panzer I had included LF BdB BN, and 2016 Grandes Crayères. So, I’m in.
I see Aurélien, Frank and Todd have already decided to address the Climate Change question I posed for the other LB zoom so I’ll see if there are any other specific ones I can recommend.