Champagne News

This time of year there are a load of trade tastings, and even if like me, you only go to a few of them, you hear things. Some Champagne news to share with you, some of it I can directly confirm, some rumor:

Frank Pascal's wines are now available in the United States. The Dressner team (now distributed in NY by David Bowler) is importing the entire lineup, and let me tell you - this is exciting news.

Isabelle and Franck Pascal, and their name tags.

Vineyard work is thoughtful and very conscientious, and fully converted to biodynamic farming since 2002. The estate is located in the village of Baslieux-sur-Châtillon, in the part of the Marne Valley where Meunier does very well in the heavy clay soils. I cannot say that I have sufficient experience drinking these wines in order to give you a detailed summary, but I can tell you that they are clean and pure and extremely well made wines, wines that showcase the potential of Meunier when it is done right - dark fruit, expansive and broad, earthy. And in Pascal's hands these wines achieve a freshness and ripeness that allows the dosage to be quite low, and the wines still feel perfectly balanced.

The "entry level" wine is called Sagessse Brut Nature. It is almost a Blanc de Noirs - 57% Meunier, 38% Pinot, and 5% Chardonnay. The current release is based on the lovely 2006 vintage, and it feels substantial and ripe, and entirely under control, very fresh. At about $60 it is a bit more expensive than some entry level wines, but it is a very high quality wine that will delight the red grape Champagne lovers out there.

Cuvée Tolérance Brut Rosé is a truly lovely rosé of Champagne, the first Pascal wine that I tried. This wine is Sagesse but with the addition of Pascal's red still wine. It is absolutely delicious, and it doesn't smell or taste anything like Sagesse - as Franck Pascal said, " The addition of still red wine really changes the character of Sagesse." At about $65, this is a very good value in rosé. There are a few vintage wines and I cannot talk intelligently about them because I've had them only at tastings. My favorite so far is the exquisite 2004 Quinte Essence Brut, made of 60% Pinot, 25% Meunier, and 15% Chardonnay from vineyards in Belval-sous-Châtillon (if I understood correctly). All of the wines were very good, but this one stood out to me because of its precision and harmony, the elegance amidst the intensity of its flavors. At about $85 we're into vintage Champagne expensive territory, but here you're definitely getting your money's worth, in my opinion.

And I must mention the fact that team Dressner has wisely decided to bring in the still red wine, the Franck Pascal Coteaux Champenois Confiance. There won't be much of it and it will cost something like $70 a bottle. But Coteaux Champenois can be as beautifully perfumed, elegant, and hauntingly delicious as a lot of expensive Burgundy wine. If you think of this as a 1er Cru from a great producer, then $70 is not very expensive at all. There hasn't been a lot of Coteaux Champenois on the market and I'm very happy that there will now be this one. I've only tasted it, but I liked it very much. This release is mostly from the fantastic 2008 vintage, the balance is 2007. There is such brightness and energy, highly perfumed black currant and blackberry fruit, the texture is rich with the pulp of tiny berries, and the pungent mineral finish really lingers.

Other Champagne news:

--The Dressner team is now bringing in the interesting and delicious Champagnes of Francis Boulard. I think these are great wines and hopefully they will be easier to find on retail shelves now. They are very reasonably priced too.

--I hear that Marie-Noëlle Ledru's fantastic Coteaux Champenois will soon be available in New York. Charlie Woods who created Bonhomie Wine Selections tells me that he is bringing in 3 cases of the 2004 vintage sometime this year.

That's right...3 cases. 36 bottles of this wine will be available in New York. He says that the restaurant Corton has dibs on an entire case, but that the remaining 24 bottles will be allocated as widely as possible. My friends, this is a wine that you must find and purchase if you are even a little bit interested in Pinot Noir or Coteaux Champenois. Ask your favorite shop to buy the wine, and I hope you can get a bottle. I think I have dibs on one, and if I don't, I sincerely advise Charlie, his family, friends, and acquaintances to watch their step around me.

--I hear that Gatinois' Coteaux Champenois is now going to be available through Polaner. I've never tasted it and I don't know the price, but this producer has some of the most prime plots in Grand Cru Aÿ, and their Champagnes are so good, why shouldn't the still wine be great? Again, it's cool that we consumers will have the opportunity to try more still red wine from Champagne, a style of wine that I honestly think will interest many a Burgundy lover.

Friday Night Bubbles

2000 Gatinois Brut, about $45, Polaner Imports. The millennium vintage in Champagne was not a great one, in the end. It was a ripe vintage, strange as that may sound for Champagne, and apparently many of the wines lack precision and focus. Most producers made a vintage wine anyway - if you were a wine maker would you skip the chance to make a wine from the year 2000? really, how bad would your fruit have to be to voluntarily miss out? All your colleagues are making a 2000, shouldn't you?

I've had the chance to drink several 2000's in the past few weeks, and I must say that I have not been impressed. Even with a rock solid producer like Jacques Lassaigne in Montgueux, whose non vintage wines are cut and precise, the 2000 was sort of fuzzy and all over the place. I know there are great wines from the 2000 vintage, but I haven't had them. Well, I did taste the 2000 Cuvée Fiacre from Chartogne Taillet and that was wonderful. They're out there, but they're not the norm.

This one, the 2000 Gatinois Brut, is one of the good ones. Gatinois is located in Aÿ in the Vallée de Marne, right near Bollinger, to whom Pierre Cheval-Gatinois sells about half of his harvest each year. Aÿ is Grand Cru Pinot Noir territory, and as you would therefore expect, Gatinois wines are almost entirely Pinot. In the case of the vintage wines, they are 100% Pinot Noir. Gatinois bottles under 3,000 cases of wine each year, and this is inclusive of all five wines (Tradition Brut, Réserve Brut, Rosé, Millésime, and Demi-sec), so it's not an easy bottle to find. But if you are a fan of red grape Champagne, and of a full bodied style in general, try a bottle if you see one.
The color is somewhat striking, golden, almost amber in color. The nose is first and foremost clean and fresh, almost airy, and this balances the ripeness and richness of the aromas so that the wine in the end transcends the problems of the vintage. Sweet and rich aromas of berry fruit, orange peel and marzipan are infused with a chalky essence. The nose is broad and round, but mostly under control. The wine is texturally lovely with a very fine mousse and the palate is surprisingly mineral driven. The fruit is front and center, and it's juicy and ripe, but the fineness of texture and the definite mineral floor grounds the wine. With air time it puts on weight, but maintains somewhat strong focus in part because of the tangy acidity, and also because of the strong and narrow finish that resonates with orange zest. This is a very big wine with great depth of fragrance and flavor, and it maintains an elegant, if exuberant posture.