TNs: BubbleQ II

[Michael Malinoski]

My wife and I were excited to join our hosts and 3 other couples recently for a wonderful evening in their back yard featuring Champagne served with a variety of different BBQ'd foods. We did something similar 2 years earlier and it was a huge success in opening our minds to the flexibility of Champagne, so why not try it again?

Arrival wines:

1990 Pommery Champagne Cuvée Louise Brut. This is burnished gold in color and features a layered, rich and honeyed bouquet that presents aged but driven aromas of praline, peanut brittle, copper pot, herbs, peach pit and browned apple. On the palate, it is darkly yeasty, with flavors of toasted bread, caramel and honey shot through with bright coppery arrow of tangy acidity and browned citrus notes. It’s layered, dynamic and juicy, but also mellow and finely-aged in tone and yielding in texture. It finishes a bit on the prickly side, but I really like the journey this wine takes you on.

N.V. Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve. Served from magnum. This wine is fresh and tense on the nose, showing off fine aromas of apple flesh, pears, smoke and minerals. In the mouth, it has a nice fine core of sweet lemon and yellow apple fruit flavors that are supported by a nice tang of acidity sweeping in behind. It’s fresh and lively, but at the same time entirely inviting and friendly.

First Course: A Selection of Three Cheeses

2002 Henri Goutorbe Champagne Special Club. This wine sports lovely aromas of sweet berries, lemon curd, apricot, pears, white currants and dried flowers perhaps derived from a fairly heavy dosage, but also a fine twist of steel, smoke and anise that really work to create great complexity, layering and balance here. It’s very well done, and is largely repeated on the palate--where one senses fine sweetness and a wonderful vinosity but also excellent mineral underpinnings. On the whole, it’s round, expansive, richly-styled and very generous—really delivering the goods all the way through. This is drinking fantastically right now, and was certainly one of the wines of the evening.

Second Course: Spiced Tuna Tartare on Grilled Crisps

1990 Perrier-Jouët Champagne Belle Epoque. Served from magnum. This is a healthy yellow-gold color, with just a faint bead to it. Aromatically, it has some blue and purple berry scents to go with gentle nut and stone characteristics, but it is on the palate where its aristocratic nature really shines. First off, it has more weight and depth to it than one might be allowed to expect at this age, and it carries its dense flavors on an elegant and classy frame from start to finish. It has power and surprising vibrancy, but loads of sweet lemon, apple and berry fruit flavors that have fine length and ease about them. It’s long, luxuriant, smooth, fully-flavored and exceptionally food friendly. It’s a real delight to drink and I probably had more than my fair share by the end of the evening.

Third Course: BBQ’d Crab Cakes with Seaweed Salad

1986 Duval-Leroy Champagne Cuvee des Roys Brut Grand Cru. Served from magnum. There’s just a fantastic bouquet to this rather characterful wine—exhibiting all kinds of lemon pixie stick, lime peel, chalk and soft mineral scents to go along with more mysterious bits of spice, nuts, toffee, toasted pastry and vanilla aromas. It really is a unique expression and had a lot of us talking about just how individualistic it seems. In the mouth, it is broad and complex—with wild flavors of beer nuts, caramel, dark berry fruit and a sort of hops-driven character that had some of us thinking about lambic beer. It has a sort of mealy quality to it at times that seems in keeping with its overall personality, but it’s also long and giving, with a caramel, nut and toffee finishing kick accented by finer tangy citrus notes. It’s a bit divisive, but most folks had this as one of their favorites of the tasting.

Fourth Course: Blue Seal Kielbasa with Mustard-Horseradish Sauce and Chorizo with Fruit Chutney

1996 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut Vintage Reserve. After the three best wines of the night were served in front of it, this wine struggled a bit to stand out on its own, I thought. It’s somewhat advanced on the nose--with dark caramel, roasted nut and roasted coffee bean scents overwhelming any subtler notes that might be present. In the mouth, it performs far better, showing off a lot of big and mouth-filling pear, dark peach, yellow apple, blanched nut and honey flavors to go with a good cut of acidity that works well with the spicy dipping sauce in particular. It’s hanging in there, but again it just seemed outclassed on this particular evening.

Repose with a Game of Bocce:

1999 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. This wine seems pretty darned young all around, in my opinion. The nose features aromas of gunpowder, smoke, flintlock, grapefruit and fresh ginger that are tight and muscular, but elegant and refined, too. On the palate, it is precise, sharp-edged and finely-etched but also hinting at its regal elegance at every turn. This is impressive, but still needs time to unwind and ought to be very long-lived indeed.

Fifth Course: Duo of Sliders (Double Bacon and Cheddar & Lamb with Feta and Cilantro) with Truffle Tots

2002 René Geoffroy Champagne Extra Brut. Man, this is brisk and wound up tight on the nose, with compact and hard-chiseled aromas of steel, herbs, quinine, lime, green apple and matchstick. In the mouth, it is insanely vibrant and bracingly crunchy all the way through—like a hard slap to the face. It has intensity to it and lots of snap and hard mineral-laden flavors. I wouldn’t call it austere, but it definitely defines the extra brut style. It isn’t especially my cup of tea, but I think it’s very well made for the style it’s intended to portray.

Sixth Course: Country Style Pork Ribs with Maple Chipotle Sauce and Summer Slaw

N.V. Ruinart Champagne Brut Rosé. Served from magnum. This wine features a fresh and taut set of strawberry, raspberry, herb, graphite, smoke and struck match aromas. It tastes of red berries, smoke, herbs, graphite and white chocolate to me, with a somewhat sharp-edged texture. It seems to grow more austere, smoky and tightly acidic the longer you stay with it, and my impression is that you might want to cellar this a bit longer when stored in this magnum format. Also, I’d have to say I thought this was perhaps the least successful food pairing of the evening.

Dessert: Assorted Baklava

1978 Freemark Abbey Edelwein Johannisberg Riesling Napa Valley. This wine pours almost dark brown in color, with a nose that’s all about dark raisins, figs, dates, fruitcake and prune aromas. In the mouth, I like it a good deal, especially the interplay between dark fig, prune, raisin and date flavors and more brightly acidic tones of star fruit and apricot. There’s some fun botrytis spiced cream accents that come in toward the back of the palate, and there’s nice acidity at all times to prevent the wine from ever seeming cloying or particularly heavy. I really enjoyed it with the baklava and thought it was a fitting finale to a very successful and fun evening.


-Michael

[AlexR]

Many thanks for sharing.
Very interesting bunch of wines.

Not a drop of red!

I had the 99 Clos des Goissses two months ago. Yes, a pleasure now, but has a great future.

Alex

[Michael Malinoski]

Thanks, Alex. I have 2 bottles of the '99 Clos des Goisses left and probably will try to keep hands off for another 2-3 years. The '98 is the vintage I really want to try...

-Michael

[stefan]

Great selection of Champagne.

I never thought about drinking Champagne with BBQ. Fortunately for me, neither has Lucie. How was it? Was the BBQ mostly seafood or did you have some brisket?

We'll drink only Champagne tonight, but with lobster. None will be as interesting as what you drank, though. Have you and friends cellared Champagnes for a long time or did you source them recently?

[Nicklasss]

Thanks Michael for the nice report on all those Champagne.

I enjoyed very much a 2002 Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque a few years ago.

Champagne is an amazing wine, but the prices are discouraging a but, as you can sip a bottle (or two) in no time, before dinner.

The real wine of the riches?

Nic