Champagne Wines

wines

A firm, fresh Comtes with a tight and composed palate. It’s full-bodied with a racy mid-palate. Long and persistent. Very structured with phenolics and acidity. Minerally. Floral, too. Refreshing and energetic. September 2021 release. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 97 JSAfter the tightly coiled, hyper-concentrated 2008, Taittinger’s 2011 Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne represents a more immediate, charming rendition of this cuvée. Bursting from the glass with aromas of orchard and stone fruit mingled with notions of pastry cream, blanched almonds and mandarin, it’s medium to full-bodied, pillowy and fleshy, with a soft and enveloping profile, lively acids and a pretty pinpoint mousse. Readers might think of the 2011 as a somewhat less reductive and less intense stylistic sibling of the 2006, and as it takes on more toasty complexity with bottle age, it will make for immensely seductive drinking.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RP100% Chardonnay sourced from five grand cru villages: Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger. Superb bouquet revealing scents of mirabelle plums, orchard fruits, brioche, pastry, and liquorice, complicated by classy autolytic notes. On the palate, this remarkable 2011 has a tauter and more fine-boned texture than usual, which is enhanced by bubbles of striking finesse and delicacy. This is indeed a very refined, chamber-music-like Comtes de Champagne that ends ethereally with airy harmonics and chalky notes infused with candied lemon. Dosage: 9g/L. Disgorged: April 2021. Drinking Window 2021 - 2040.Decanter | 94 DECA minerally version, with smoke and saline notes deftly meshed with flavors of glazed apple, lemon-infused pastry cream and marzipan. This is fine and softly creamy in texture, with lemony acidity providing good definition through to the lightly toasty finish. Elegant. Drink now through 2030. 2,800 cases imported. Wine Spectator | 93 WS

A super-complex Champagne with chewy tension. Aromas of coffee beans, lemon peel, burnt sugar, chalky minerality, barley candy and tarte tatin. Fine pinprick bubbles with flavors of lemon leaves, aspirin and Mirabelle plums, plus a touch of grapefruit bitterness keeping the tension. Zesty yet integrated chewy acidity and a medium body with a toasted finish. Drink of hold.James Suckling | 97 JSThe 2015 Dom Pérignon is terrific. Bright and poised, the 2015 shows terrific energy. Citrus peel, white flowers, mint, white pepper and slate all race across the palate. There’s gorgeous tension and backbone here, with bright saline notes that extend the mid-palate and finish. This is a fine showing in a vintage that has proven to be tricky. I am intrigued to see how the 2015 develops in the coming years.Vinous Media | 96 VMDisgorged in January 2023, the 2015 Dom Pérignon shows a singular, ethereal profile with aromas of white pepper, iodine, ripe orchard fruits, toast, smoke, herbs and spices. Medium to full-bodied, layered, and structured, it’s enveloping and round with a delicate phenolic mid-palate that underlines chalky dry extracts, concluding with a sapid, penetrating finish with gastronomic bitterness. This iteration of Dom Pérignon, though replete with the customary charm and vinous generosity that typify the label, distinguishes itself by its structural delicate austerity and a notably phenolic profile, giving rise to a remarkably linear and well-defined style that diverges markedly from the more familiar expressions of Dom Pérignon. This is a blend of 51% Pinot Noir and 49% Chardonnay with a dosage of 4.5 grams per liter; it will age wonderfully and can be enjoyed now or over the next 20 years.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RPBurnished gold color with a fine, effervescent bead, the Grand Vintage 2015 shows abundant ripeness on the nose with notes of white peach, quince, butter pastry, elderflower and nougat. A 44% Pinot Noir 32% Chardonnay and 24% Meunier, it was disgorged in May 2022 and finished with a five gram per liter dosage. The medium to full-bodied palate possesses a straightlaced acid-line that lifts the rich orchard fruit core through the honeyed finish.The Wine Independent | 91 TWI

...The complexity and richness of Special Cuvée is unparalleled among the entry non-vintage blends of every Champagne house, short of ascending to the mesosphere of Krug. Its grand recipe explains why, built on incredible depth of 50%-60% reserves. Triumphant complexity is a given at Bollinger, but it’s the dynamic freshness and vitality that really set it apart as one of the most affordable Champagne benchmarks.Decanter | 96 DECBollinger’s NV Special Cuvée knocks it out of the park. Made from 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and the rest Pinot Meunier, with 30% of the blend brought up in barrels, it boasts a rich, deep, medium to full-bodied style as well as terrific notes of lemon curd, crème brûlée, caramelized stone fruits, and hints of toasty nuttiness that develop with time in the glass. It’s a big, rich Champagne that stays balanced and pure. Beautiful stuff.Jeb Dunnuck | 93 JDBollinger’s NV Special Cuvée knocks it out of the park. Made from 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and the rest Pinot Meunier, with 30% of the blend brought up in barrels, it boasts a rich, deep, medium to full-bodied style as well as terrific notes of lemon curd, crème brûlée, caramelized stone fruits, and hints of toasty nuttiness that develop with time in the glass. It’s a big, rich Champagne that stays balanced and pure. Beautiful stuff.Jeb Dunnuck | 93 JDRestrained and very pretty aromas include those of yeast, Meyer lemon, petrol and green apple where the latter element is picked up by the utterly delicious, vibrant and detailed flavors that possess fine complexity on the agreeably dry but not austere finish. The supporting mousse is dense but fine and overall, this is a wine that could be enjoyed now or held for up to a decade. Excellent. (Drink starting 2024)Burghound | 93 BHOne of Bollinger’s great assets is a massive stock of reserve wine, including 600,000 magnums held under cork. Gilles Descôtes tends those reserves, working with the blending team to subsume the variations of the current vintage into Bollinger’s Special Cuvée by using a majority of reserve wines in the blend. The result is a rich and harmonious Champagne with deep reserves of flavor. Its substantial, formal structure feels polished, its flavors balancing the cool earthiness of a limestone cave and the sunnier, bright floral notes of fresh cream. Built for food, whether emphasizing the freshness with lobster bisque, or the depth with beef Wellington and chanterelles.Terlato Wines Int’l., Lake Bluff, ILWine & Spirits | 93 W&S Like its rosé counterpart, the latest release of Bollinger’s NV Brut Special Cuvée is showing especially well, bursting from the glass with aromas of honeyed apples, crisp stone fruit, buttery pastry, ripe lemons and fresh walnuts. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and vinous, with a deep core of beautifully ripe fruit, racy acids and a pillowy mousse, it’s a charming, characterful wine that proves that Special Cuvée is firmly back where it belongs.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92 RPThere’s a pleasing, snappy quality to the acidity framing this elegant Champagne, enlivening accessible flavors of currant, Marcona almond and orchard blossom, with a minerally touch of saline-laced oyster shell that lingers on the finish. Drink now through 2022. 11,000 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 92 WSLots of biscuit aromas and a wide spectrum of fresh-citrus, candied-citrus, red-apple and red-berry notes. Mouth-filling creaminess, plus quite an imposing presence and powerful structure for an NV Brut. Long, citrus and chalky finish that’s very clean and properly dry. 60% pinot noir, 30% chardonnay, 10% pinot meunier. Almost 20% barrel fermented and 62% reserve wines. Based on the 2017 vintage and disgorged July 2021. Drink now.James Suckling | 92 JSFine bubbles combine nicely with the cooked apples, pie crust and lemon rind. Some biscuit, too. Full body. Layered and creamy with a crisp finish. Always delicious. Drink now.James Suckling | 92 JSDominated, as always, by Pinot Noir and with wood fermentation and aging, this Champagne has a great poise between freshness and richness. It is intense and ripe, with apple and minerality coming together. The bottling is ready to drink.Wine Enthusiast | 92 WE (60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier; 8 g/l dosage; L1403801): Pale yellow. Toasty aromas of apple and pear nectar are complemented by hints of toffee, honey and orange zest. Full and expansive on the palate, offering ripe orchard and pit fruit flavors and an undercurrent of smoky minerals and buttered toast. Smooth and gently spicy on the clinging, nicely focusd finish.Antonio Galloni | 91 AG(NV Bollinger “Special Cuvée” Brut NV (Aÿ)) The current release of Bollinger “Special Cuvée” is composed of its customary blend of sixty percent pinot noir, twenty-five percent chardonnay and fifteen percent pinot meunier. It was finished with a dosage of eight grams per liter and offers up is classic pinot-shaded bouquet of white peach, apple, bread dough, a beautiful base of soil tones, a touch of hazelnut and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a fine core of fruit, a good spine of acidity, elegant mousse and a long, well-balanced and classy finish. This is still a young wine and I would tuck it away in the cellar for at least a few years and let its acids relax a bit and its secondary layers of complexity emerge. (Drink between 2020-2040).John Gilman | 91+ JGNotes of flowery beeswax, white fruit, and quince on the nose. The palate has a flinty austerity with Braeburn, white pepper and subtle spice followed by yeasty richness and brisk finish. Drinking Window 2020 - 2025.Decanter | 90 DEC

The floral bouquet is very fine and elegant but also quite delicate, suffused with touches of slightly candied citrus, but the telltale autolytic note of hazelnuts is less pronounced than usual. There is, however, some almond nuttiness on the palate, as well as racy rectitude and vivacity that give thrust to a long, surprisingly breezy finish. Will benefit from five to 10 years of cellaring. Disgorged January 2020. Dosage: 4.5g/L. Elaborated from 146 wines and 11 different vintages, the oldest of which dates back to 2000. 40% reserve wines. Drinking Window 2021 - 2035.Decanter | 94 DEC

The NV V.P. Vieillissement Prolongé (base 2014) is a powerful, explosive wine. The combination of the base year, with the extended time on the lees and low dosage, yields an especially stark, austere Champagne that will need a few years to unwind following its disgorgement just a few months ago. Orchard fruit, chalk, mint, white pepper, plum and slate are some of the many notes that build into the intense, mineral-drenched finish. This is a wine for the patient. Dosage is 3 grams per liter. Disgorged: October, 2022.Vinous Media | 96 VMThe NV Champagne Grand Cru VP Viellisement Prolongent Extra Brut (which I believe is based on the 2014 vintage, with 2012 and 2013 reserve wine) is expressive and elegant with ripe pineapple, lemon custard, and white flowers. The mousse is elegant, and it’s long on the palate, with another level of refinement and precision. There’s more focus here, with great length and a wonderful and balanced savory edge. At this stage, it still feels like it would benefit from more time in bottle. Drink 2024-2042. This spent 7 years on the lees before disgorgement.Jeb Dunnuck | 95 JD

A lovely ferny nose and breezy seaside raciness. Bright yellow fruit on entry, a flicker of preserved lemon and cooked quince adding vibrancy. Then comes the Krug richness which spreads over the palate. The balance hovers tantalisingly between tactile precision and soft warm fruit and the finish reveals layers of cinnamon-tinctured blancmange, and the creaminess goes on. Rich but light on its feet. A definite buy and a keeper. The 2014 base harvest was hit by sour rot and mildew in mid-summer. Intense selection meant Krug had to reduce the amount of Meunier to half its Grande Cuvée average, and reserve wines (representing 45% of the final wine) back to 1998 buttress the balance and complexity; a triumph of blending. It also relies heavily on 2013 to add life and structure. Main harvest: 2014. 45% reserves. Aged for six years on lees. Disgorged: Spring 2021. Drinking Window: 2023 - 2040Decanter | 96 DECWonderful precision and depth right away on the nose, with dried pineapple, light apricot and hints of flint and slate. Medium-bodied palate that’s firm, bright and linear. Vivid,driven acidity adds focus and perfection. Dried lemon and a wonderful, creamy texture with a mineral undertone. Extremely long, almost endless. Sophistication here. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 96 JSThe numbering indicates this is the 170th blending of this Champagne. This iteration has a fine poise—it’s mature and toasty on the one hand and offers rich fruit on the other. It is a finely balanced wine that is ripe and full in the mouth. Drink this beautiful wine now. —R.V.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEKrug’s NV Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition is based on the 2014 vintage, complemented by some 45% reserve wines dating back to 1998, with the house drawing on, among many others, 2013 for structure and 2012 and 2003 for generosity. Opening in the glass with aromas of pastry cream, dried fruits, pear, warm spices, freshly baked bread and vanilla pod, it’s medium to full-bodied, pillowy and fine-boned, with excellent concentration, racy acids and a precise, chiseled profile. But if the latter adjective could be applied to the 2013-base 169ème édition equally felicitously, the 2014-base 170ème is more giving and less tightly wound out of the gates and will offer more demonstrative drinking young.Robert Parker The Wine Advocate | 95 RPA lovely, mouthwatering Champagne, with a vivid and finely detailed panoply of baked nectarine, lime blossom, ground coffee, mandarin orange peel, candied ginger and salted almond notes set in a lithe, limber frame. Seamlessly knit, with a sense of buoyant vitality, this has a harmonious, elegant frame for the richly expressive flavor range. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier. Disgorged winter 2020 to 2021. Drink now through 2027.Wine Spectator | 95 WSFrom vintages spanning from 1998 to 2014, the NV Champagne Grande Cuvee 170eme Edition is decadent and nuanced, with a rounded perfume of toasted brioche, lemon curd, and honeydew melon. Ripe yellow orchard fruits fill the palate with nectarine, fresh grapefruit pith, and a core of acidity. This is showing wonderfully now, although it still has the tension to go for the next 20 years. Jeb Dunnuck | 95+ JD(NV Krug Grande Cuvée “170ème Édition” Brut NV (Reims)) The very soon to be released new “170ème Édition” of Krug Grande Cuvée is a stunning young wine. It is from the base year of 2014 and composed from a cépages of fifty-one percent pinot noir, thirty-eight percent chardonnay and eleven percent pinot meunier. In this vintage, a nearly unprecedented forty-five percent of the blend was made up of reserve wines. The reason so much of the blend this year was made up of reserve wines was the crop of pinot noir in 2014 was not stellar, as it had to contend with the infestation of Suzuki flies that damaged the quality of this grape in particular leading into the harvest of 2014. But, fortunately, there was plenty of pinot noir in the reserve wine library at Maison Krug, so the challenge was able to be overcome beautifully. The “170ème Édition” of Grande Cuvée is strikingly floral this year, offering up a beautiful bouquet of pear, delicious apples, hazelnut, a complex base of soil tones, orange zest, patissière and a gorgeous array of floral scents in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and beautifully mineral in profile, with a fine core, refined mousse and a very long, complex and perfectly balanced finish. This is a beautiful rendition of this iconic wine. (Drink between 2022-2065)John Gilman | 95 JGThe 170th edition of Grande Cuvée is based on the 2014 vintage, with reserve wines making up 45 percent of the blend. The layered complexity of the wine is immediately intriguing, a character Jhonel Faelner of NYC’s Atomix described as “multidimensional,” finding shades of citrus, apple, hazelnut and nougat, even as the wine finished completely dry. The force of the limestone acidity structures the varied amplitudes of flavor, the wine needing bottle age to fully show its depths. When it comes to blended wines from traditional grand marque houses, Grande Cuvée’s presence, stature and detail set it apart.Krug, NYWine and Spirits Mag | 94 W&S

The May 2017 disgorgement of Fallon’s NV Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Ozanne is showing brilliantly, wafting from the glass with aromas of citrus oil, crisp yellow orchard fruit, freshly baked bread, toasted nuts, candied peel and honeycomb. Full-bodied, vinous and concentrated, it’s layered and textural, with a bright spine of acidity, a pearly enlivening mousse and a long, intensely sapid finish. Its combination of power and tension makes this the finest wine I’ve tasted from Fallon to date. Of course, finding any of the thousand or so bottles released every year is next to impossible, but readers able to track one or two down are in for a treat.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RPThe NV Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Ozanne is laced with gorgeous scents of pastry, brioche, citrus, white flowers and yellow orchard fruit. Warm, oxidative tones add breadth and volume, but the wine remains weightless, impeccable and pure. The delineated, crystalline finish leaves a lasting impression. This is a super-impressive showing from a producer who appears to have a very bright future. Ozanne is the old, historical name by which Avize was known prior to 796. Disgorged May 25, 2012.Antonio Galloni | 93 AG