Found this lurking in the cellar. Seems like it might be fun for a lunchtime tasting.
David,
You are making me think of opening up one of these as well. Such a well made Demi-Sec and Champagne in general. My plan has been to have a 1998 Special Club open for the virutal visit, but maybe I should open a Demi-Sec up today to get myself properly focused.
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All the PMs for tomorrow have been caught up again. We have room for more folks so if you want to join the discussion with Mathilde and Brad, PM me please.
We’ll have a nice mix of WB and IG people on this one, as we did last week. I like the diversity, as it is bringing both communities together.
Just opened a le Demi Sec that was disgorged in Sept. 2016 which should make it a 2014 base. This has wonderful balance and plenty of zippy acidity and freshness. It is sweet, but not overly so. The normal Margaine organe led citrus profile is joined by sweeter peach and apricot flavors. This is great match for a bowl of fresh fruit with a dollop of just lightly sweetened cream. Along with Selosse’s Exquise, Clicquot’s Vintage Rich, and Taittinger’s Nocturne Rose, this is one of the top sweeter styled Champagnes out there… because it is made frome good material and comes across as far less sweet than you would imagine if you looked at the dosage.
Last call for the link. We start in about an hour.
Thanks for the solid amount of sign-ups everyone. I know Mathilde will appreciate it, as do we.
Here’s the video, complete with Brad’s sabering fail 2.0 and one of my favorite phrases of these events: “taking my hair away from my head” (i.e. “pulling my hair out”)
Today kicked ass. So enjoyed meeting her.
What a great ambassador for both her wines and the region as a whole.
Thanks again to all as usual.
I enjoyed that “beaucoup”. Well done all around. Brad, you know your stuff!
Another enjoyable Zoomer. Mathilde will most certainly win the award for the cutest winemaker on our calls.
That was a lot of fun!
Mathilde seems very plugged in and soaking up everything. So knowledgeable for someone only really serious in for less than 2.5 years. The estate is in good hands.
I think I’ve tried one of their ones at some point but not sure. I hope to try some soon. If you find some more Frank, maybe this would be a good focus for an early post-Covid tasting/dinner.
Already working on it…I’ll let you know. There is a little wine here and there up and down the West Coast but we need to have a crack at the range here locally.
My local shop carries it routinely, I’ve had quite a bit. The 2012 Special Club is outstanding.
Thanks to all for attending and especially to Todd, Frank, and Mathilde for the work they put in to make this happen. The entire Margaine family is a special group of people and Mathilde may be the brightest star of all. I think we all have a lot to look forward to over the next few decades especially as she continues to work side-by-side with her father Arnaud who has no plans to retire anytime soon.
The only downside to this week was me. Apparently, I have forgotten how to Saber and am now the Champagne Un-Warrior. Two in a row is quite embarrassing especially on film, but at least I will be remembered for something. I guess I should be thankful Benoit Dehu just took off and ran with things a week ago or it might be three failures in a row. There will be no sabering for Vouette et Sorbee.
Thanks Brad for your pertinent questions that lead to a more informative session. I have full faith in your sabering ability and I shall remember that you at least attempted to where as I have never done it. What you will be remembered for is your in depth knowledge of all things champagne/ Champagne and your willingness and passion in sharing it.
And thanks to Frank for the maps as it really helps to get a sense of location especially when we zoom in to the specific vineyards. That is particularly significant in the case of Margaine in that they exist in a Pinot Noir centric Montagne de Reims region that is planted about 90% to PN where they are almost all Chardonnay in Villers-Marmery which Frnnk mentioned earlier.
Todd does a great job of moderating these and thanks for clarifying my questions to Mathilde which I evidently mumbled out.
I still don’t understand why Margaine is so hard to get in some places like Southern Caifornia. It is a Skurnik wine and part of the old Theise portfolio. We didn’t talk a lot about production, but Margaine is on the low side at 50-60k bottles a year. This makes them slighly larger than someone like Mousse, but a lot smaller than folks like Goutorbe, Gimonnet, Peters, Vilmart, Hebrart, Geoffroy, Chiquet, and Vilmart. I kind of scratched my head at first over the fact taht Mousse is smaller yet seems easier to find across the US. Thinking about this, Mousse is a bit newer in their global introduction and have added volume recently. This gives Cedric the opportunity to ship more wine to the States. Margaine has had a well established global customer base for a while and isn’t raising production. The US is Margaine’s top export market and around 18% of their production comes here so about 9-11k bottles per year. Not a lot, but not a small amount either.
Mathilde did talk about having to make allocations for their wines so they have more demand than supply. My guess is that the markets in the US that have traditionally received the wines for the last twenty years get them year-after-year and that the other markets may see sporadic offerings and/or need to make a request if they want them. Of course, there can also be distributor issues/choices/gameplans in place too that affect things.
Brad, I was struck when you talked about production sizes on the Zoom event. I think you mentioned how small Billiot is. Like 30k bottles? That’s a producer that is almost always available in SoCal. The regular gray label NV and usually the latest vintage area easy to find. Interesting the availability versus production.
Billiot sells a lot of their bottles on the export market and not so much in France. Vilmart is another one like that. Margaine is a bit more spread out and still has a good deal of traditional, local business. Billiot is normally in the 30-35k range though they may sometimes get up to 40k. Where I am at in Michigan, it has been difficult to get Billiot for the last decade, but we have always had Margaine. For whatever reason, a lot of the country seems to only get certain pieces to the Skurnik Champagne puzzle.
I poured champagne {Vilmart} for Skurnick a year ago in LA at a trade tasting and it was mentioned then that they were expanding their coverage to the West Coast by establishing a dedicated office, I believe in LA. I know a guy who reps for them and will inquire as to what they are doing and the availability to Margaine out here.