TNs: Bubble-Q III

[Michael Malinoski]

For three years now, my wife and I have had the pleasure of attending a friend’s Champagne and barbecue tasting event. He and his wife grill up a wide range of dishes for nine of us and pair them with different magnums of Champagne to highlight the flexibility of these wines. I was skeptical the first year about some of the pairings, but I must admit that I haven’t been disappointed yet!

Arrival:

N.V. Henriot Champagne Brut Souverain. This magnum was purchased several years ago, and indeed the wine shows some mildly-aged qualities on the highly-appealing nose, including brioche, blanched almonds, fresh ginger, yellow apples, white peaches and a bit of mineral and quinine aromas that also display nice lift. In the mouth, it’s very friendly and open with its expansive flavors of toasted bread, lemon drop, butterscotch, ginger ale and subtle red berry fruits. It foams up nicely and flows across the creamy palate with no hard edges. It’s a gentle and rather tasty wine that was the favorite of several of the attendees.

First Course: Cheeses, Pates, Assorted Dried Fruits and Nuts

N.V. Pierre Péters Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée de Réserve. This magnum was disgorged in August of 2011, which I think means it’s 100% from the 2008 vintage. It features an absolutely splendid nose that pulls me back time and again to appreciate its crisp, flinty, intense but airy aromas of struck match, wispy smoke, lime, slate and fresh herb that are chiseled and driven, but plenty wide-brimmed and pretty. In the mouth, it’s pure and impressively precise, with fantastic minerality and pinpoint control giving it a sense of real class and tension. There’s not a hair out of place, and the flavors of lemon-lime, yellow apple, white peach, herbs and smoke are beautifully balanced. I find it exciting and refreshing, but for some it was a bit too young and strident. There’s no hurry at all with this, but I have no problem recommending it be drunk right now, either.

Second Course: Grilled Spiced Tuna atop Seaweed Salad with Berried Compote

N.V. Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve. This bottle takes a while to open up and round into form, but it starts to reveal appealing aromas of dark ginger, copper kettle, lemon slice and toasted herbs after several minutes in the glass and especially upon the second pour. On the palate, it features flavors of dark ginger, ripe orchard fruits, darker mineral tones and fine citrus accents. It’s more full-bodied than any of the previous wines, with serious push and subtle power allied to fine classiness. It’s excellent, as always, but maybe not quite as much of a standout as the magnum from this same batch served at the first of these events.

Third Course: Grilled Peach & Tarragon Shooters with Charred Pineapple

1990 Deutz Champagne Cuvée William Deutz. This is a healthy gold color and delivers a layered and generous bouquet of peach, nectarine, candied lime, light caramel, cold butter, yeast and pretty flower aromas that are very nicely-aged and generous in nature. In the mouth, it’s winey and complex in its layered but popping flavors of citrus, minerals, ginger, butterscotch and chopped nuts, and it displays some nice red fruit flavors showing through on the long and creamy-textured finish. It’s a rather tasty wine, though a second glass later on is nuttier and more advanced, so I wouldn’t wait any longer on it.

Fourth Course: Grilled Flatbread Two Ways: Sausage, Figs & Feta; Arugula & Caramelized Onions over Pesto Sauce

1990 Perrier-Jouët Champagne Cuvée Belle Epoque. This is entirely elegant and refined on the tremendously classy nose, tickling the nostrils with light and gentle aromas of herbs, minerals, nuts, anise, pastry, white currants and apples that are layered and lovely. It’s super-creamy in the mouth, with a luxuriant and effortless mousse that carries along finely-spiced and finessed flavors of toast, apples, chalk and red berries. There’s a quiet concentration to the finish, and the whole thing just works in perfect unity.

Fifth Course: Mini Duck Burgers with Shiitake Mushroom Ketchup & Hot-Sweet Mustard Sauce

1982 Bollinger Champagne R.D. Extra Brut. This bottle was disgorged February 18, 1991. Unlike many older RD’s I’ve had over the years, this one is effusively bubbly and foamy, which I like, and it delivers effusive aromas of ginger ale, almond, plum, white currant and copper minerality. It’s frothy and decidedly full-bodied on the palate, with plenty of blue and red fruit flavors in support of smoke, baked apple, ginger and copper elements that work in harmony wonderfully. There’s no austerity whatsoever from the extra brut approach and only the tiniest hint of oxidative notes. This is a superbly healthy bottle, and a total treat to drink.

Sixth Course: Maple Chipotle Baby Back Ribs with Firecracker Slaw

2004 Perrier-Jouët Champagne Cuvée Belle Epoque. We were actually supposed to have the 2004 Belle Epoque rose here, but there was a mix-up somewhere along the way, so this was a last-minute substitute 750 ml bottle from the cellar. For me, it’s very young and piquant, with too much sulfur on the nose, but also some crunchy taut aromas of flint, lime, green apple, grassy meadow and lemon peel. In the mouth, it has bracing acidity and sharp flavors of lemon, mineral and white pepper that are vigorous and intense, needing another 5 years to flesh out, I’d say.

Seventh Course: Homemade Paklava

2011 Alvear Pedro Ximenez de Anada. This shows some nice aromas of toasted walnut, toffee, molasses, Brazil nut, fig, mocha, shredded coconut and spirits. On the palate, it’s loaded with viscous toffee, mocha, fig, yellow raisin and molasses flavors that are dense and unctuous but far from sickly-sweet or cloying. It’s quite youthful, but shows lots of promise and is intensely-flavored and interesting to drink. It’s a fine close to a really special evening.

For me, the top 3 wines of the night were the 1990 Belle Epoque, the NV Pierre Peters and the 1982 Bollinger RD, each of which were very different from the others, but represent the great range of Champagne styles on the table this evening. And once again, the wines paired effortlessly with the varied courses for the most part, proving once again just how wrong I was to question the premise of this event that first time around!


-Michael

[Nicklasss]

Thanks Michael.

The 2004 Perrier-Jouet Belle Époque i had twice, was good but nothing more. I found the sweetness to be too high. At the opposite, the 2002 is really something great to me.

I plan to buy some inexpensive Champagne this weekend, as new producer products appeared at the local liquorstore. I'll give some of these a try in the coming weeks, and report.

Nic