I think I produce my “best” wine assessments when I take a run at a bottle over a meaningful period of time, often over multiple days. That having been said, these small(er) studies that Frank, et al., organize and participate in do allow for discovery and insight that is simply not available when one is looking at only one wine at a time. Context, within a group of wines, can be illuminating. Cris Cherry, owner and winemaker at Villa Creek, a long time ago said something that has stuck with me ever since — when assessing a wine, it’s helpful not only to identify what it is – whether that be particular aromas, flavors, or aspects of structure or whathaveyou – but it’s also helpful (sometimes more helpful) to identify what that wine is not. I find that’s often easier to do when tasting a focused/themed lineup.
Small(er) tastings – with a focused theme – provide the best context, imo, for learning, as they allow for an exploration beyond the individual wines, themselves, and it’s fun to see what themes sometimes emerge. Whether it’s a focus on a style, a vintage, sub-region, village, or vineyard or whatever — I just find it fun. But, like Frank, there’s a point where it becomes too much, and the event then just turns into Social Hour with Good People and good wines, and that’s fun, too.
Actually no, it’s a sweet-tarty lemon-thyme like taste that I’ve found on every one of these no sulfur champs. The mousy our lambic or bretty notes are other tells, but this is a note I get in every clean no sulfur champagne I’ve had. Or even very low sulfur. It’s probably terrible to say this, but the sulfur addition in right quantities makes the wine taste better in my opinion. Maybe its what I expect instead of what it ought to be, but to me it’s a very distinct taste.
Finishing off the 2008 Gimmonet Special Club, carefully safe inside the weapon that is posing as the green glass vessel in the photo below.
The bubbles, she gone away as the cork didn’t keep the bottle closed. No matter, I’d rather drink it still today. Beautiful color, a touch gold but more of a deep yellow. Lots of plump texture, with a lemony coat wrapped around cut apple, poached pear, salt and some white pepper. A little bruised apple has emerged on the aroma, just enough to say Hi but it’s a polite greeting with deference! Delicious like yesterday, affirming that this is aging well, expressing lots of cool notes and delivering me a big smile.
You said you no longer own, nor plan to buy, Special Club champagnes, but then an hour later you posted a note on this as your WOTN! (I realize it wasn’t your bottle, but my point is maybe not all Special Club are so bad. I like Gimmonet and find Salmon to be ok.). Like everyone else, I hate the bottles.
Kamaal, my dislike is about the glass bottle shape. What’s inside the Gimmonet bottle is terrific and I am appreciatimg that result. It’s a wine worthy of being a WOTN too. Let’s dislike the vessel together.
Frank,
I haven’t opened a bottle in a couple of years, but my last one really impressed. It’s increadibly rich and round for a brut nature. Old vines and 5 years on the lees really elevate this cuvée. At the time, it was my favorite non-dosage wine I’d tried.
Cheers,
Warren
Blake,
I’ve opened a lot of these and have loved most of them. I haven’t noticed the finish falling off. Maybe I’m becoming less analytical and more of a sensualist.
I have plenty to drink and contemplate going forward. I’ve had some really old bottles that impressed, and to my palate, can’t think of anything in the price range that compares.
Cheers,
Warren
I think I have only 2 special club bottles remaining in my cellar. I won’t buy more; I’m taking a quixotic stand against big bottles due to both environmental and ease of storage considerations.
To be fair, I’ve only had 2 bottles of this bubbly and the first one finished just fine; so, we have a bottle variation on one and maybe it’s not typical of the entire batch.
As to the deduction re NV as per the fading finish, 2 people stated they found that to be true IN GENERAL re most NV wines more so than vintage. First of all, it’s rare for me to find champagne that fades out and certainly not in Krug or Bollie.
I bought the 2 bottles after reading a review herein and loved the first one, but probably will not reload in favor of those dependable ones I usually go to.
It was your review posted here that led to my purchase of 2 bottles for a look see. The first bottle was consumed last fall and I liked it.
I liked this one too although it was a bit bigger in the nose and early taste than I had experienced in the first one and that I prefer and then faded out unlike the first one. Bottle variation. Which one is the real 1911? I have to think the first one was.
It’s Steve’s turn to host so get ready. Wait, we’re starting out with seven sparklers and three reds? There’s only six of us! I’m curious what the theme might be and taking a stab at it is always part of the enjoyment. Buckle up kids.
Road Trip
We weren’t allowed to guess what the theme was until we tasted both flights of champagne. I wonder what Steve’s up to? So all these wines are related somehow. Initially, I thought maybe all seven were from a single producer across their whole portfolio. After tasting them, I decided the theme must be blanc de blanc. Maybe everything is Chardonnay. I got bonus points because they were all 100% Chardonnay except a couple of them, but even they were predominantly Chardonnay. But that is not the theme.
The theme was Road Trip with the 2008 vintage. What!!! We started down south and circled around stopping at various villages on a clockwise route around champagne. I’m in deep trouble because I don’t know my villages. Astrid and Frank are driving now, they know the villages and their locations. I’m along for the ride - I had my head out the window and Janey’s fingers were in the cake.
2008 Jacques Lassaigne Champagne Cuvée 1+UN Extra Brut - France, Champagne
Blind: this was a fairly dark golden color, I thought it might be late 90s or early 2000 vintage. Pungent golden apple aromas of honeysuckle flower. Great apple flavor, kiss of molasses, apple and salty note. Zippy acidity. This was my favorite of the 2008. Probably got bonus points because of its uniqueness compared to the others.
2008 Guy Larmandier Champagne Signé François Vieilles Vignes Blanc de Blancs - France, Champagne
Blind: this bottle was enjoyed by the others, but not so much by me. It had a sweet lemony note to it and very low effervescence. They one point went back to it thinking that it might be a still wine. Very light yellow color.
2008 Varnier-Fanniere Champagne Grand Cru Brut Grand Vintage - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Blind: light oxidative note medium plus gold color. Tart lemon, and a little pop of sweetness at the finish wrapped up with a chalky grit. Like it.
2008 Lilbert-Fils Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Millésimé Cramant - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Blind; this wasn’t that popular with anybody. Light yellow color. Lemon and lime but more full and candied. Slight yeasty aroma. I took the remainder of the bottle home, but the cork blew out of it on the ride and shot champagne all over the inside of my car. I’m definitely getting a lot of yeasty notes now!
Heading North!
We’re circling around the Tour de Champagne picking up a few northern locations. The scenery from backseat is stunningly beautiful.
2008 Gaston Chiquet Champagne Special Club Brut - France, Champagne
Blind. Lots of herbal notes And even taste a little bit of the dried straw on the back end. Yellow apple and citrus flavors.
2008 A. Margaine Champagne Blanc de Blancs Special Club - France, Champagne
Blind: I can see how this one would be polarizing. The nose is intriguing and it seems like it saw some oak. I enjoyed this and thought it was elegant. There’s a hint of honeycomb at the end.
Italians
I thought these were all Italian, maybe the theme is Brunello? But for some reason, I changed my mind on the first bottle to a Bordeaux and now I’m screwed. Theme was Sangiovese.
2007 Isole e Olena Cepparello Toscana IGT - Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT
Blind: this was a coin toss between a Bordeaux blend and a super Tuscan in my brain. Ultimately went with Bordeaux for zero points.
This needs a good decant because the oak is extremely prevalent, but blows off with time revealing her terrific wine. Dark fruit, cassis and cherry, tobacco leaf, and a little bit of a green note at the end. Tiny crunchy tannins.
2011 Montevertine Le Pergole Torte Toscana IGT - Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT
Blind: I was really leaning towards Nebiolo and didn’t want to move off of it. I was very sure it was Italian.
This is my favorite red on the flight, lean, cherry, fine, prickly, tannins. This was a very elegant wine.
I’m gonna say there’s a bottle variation here because it’s Italian! There was a stewed quality to the nose and palate. An odd ash flavor. It wasn’t flawed, it just wasn’t very good and I’ve had other vintages of this wine and it’s very very good to great.
Great writeup Brig and funny too. I love being fooled by the blind format and on this night, a very creative one via Steve. Kudos to him for having loaded up on 2008 bubbly from a lot of different producers.
1.33g/l, no disgorgement date shown but bought two years ago.
One of the rarer ones. Very fragrant, rare I can smell a wine while pouring it.
Peachy, apricot and a little grape. Very expressive, some vanilla oak but not overwhelming. Full throttle. A little coarse at the moment. I’d leave these longer. If I had more.
I also dislike the Comtes, Krug, and Grand Siecle bottles, but at least they fit in the slightly larger champagne 750 slots. Some of the SC only fit in magnum slots.
I’d much rather have regular bottles like Egly-Ouriet, Larmandier Bernier, and most other champagne. I know they’re try to stand out amongst the masses with these bottles, but they suck. Don’t get me started about PYCM. They started reasonably then switched to the dark side of bottle size.
Should we talk about polystyrene wine boxes
