Non-Dosage Champagne

If you're anything like me then you've been thinking recently about non-dosage Champagne. I mean, who wouldn't be - it's such an interesting issue. Non-dosage Champagne has no sweetener added to the wine used to top up the bottle after disgorgement. Stop right there - I've heard words like "disgorge" many times without knowing exactly what they mean. Maybe before I tell you why I think non-dosage Champs is so interesting, a brief bit about the methode Champenoise is in order.

Still wine is made from one of or some combination of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and possibly but very rarely Pinot Blanc and the obscure Arbane and Petit Meslier. A producer can blend wines from older vintages with the new wines before bottling, if they like. The blended still wine, or the assemblage, is bottled with yeast and sugar and a second fermentation occurs inside the bottle. The carbon dioxide produced as a byproduct of fermentation is trapped by the thick glass bottle and is absorbed into the wine. The dead yeast cells, or lees, are not absorbed - they are still there in the bottle and must be removed. How to gather and remove them without losing the wine?

Through the art of Remuage, the French term for the process of gradual (daily) adjusting the bottle, moving it over time from an upright to an upside down position so that the lees settle in the neck of the bottle. This must happen for every bottle of Champagne, and there are houses that produce 50,000 bottles in a year. Most big producers use machines to do this nowadays, but there are still some who keep staff to do nothing but Remuage, as it once was in every Champagne house.

Anyway, now the lees are ready to come out of the bottle. This process, called disgorgement, can be done by hand simply by opening the bottle and allowing the pressure to force out the yeast plug. Most big producers use machines that submerge the neck of the bottle in freezing salt water so that the yeast plug freezes. Whether this is done by hand or by machine, some wine also escapes with the yeast plug. There is a short video that shows this process on the official website for Champagne wines. Check out the narrator's tone - it's as if he is revealing to you directions to Atlantis or the secrets surrounding JFK's assassination - it is that weighty of a subject he's discussing. Oiy, the nonsense that is the marketing of Champagne, but that's another story...

The bottle must be topped off before corking and cellaring. A mixture of wine and a sweetener, usually sugar but it can be concentrated grape must, is added to each bottle. The cork goes in and the bottle rests in the cellar for at least 15 months (3 years for vintage Champagne) and depending on the producer and the type of wine, for much longer.

Some producers do not add the sweetener to the dosage. No sugar? What's the big deal? It is a really big deal, as it turns out. Big houses add lots of sugar as part of their effort to make wine that tastes the same year after year, and people like sweet, so the more the merrier. Some folks say, though, that adding sugar masks the true flavors of the wine. Even a moderate amount of sugar in dosage can make a big difference in the flavor profile of the finished wine.

I am not interested in this issue as a debating point about what is the "real" Champagne, or anything like that. I'm interested in learning about my own tastes: what does non-dosage Champagne taste like?

So I've tasted a few non-dosage bubblies recently and I've tried in general to pay attention to the level of dosage in Champagne. It's easy to pick out non-dosage Champagne because it is usually named Brut Zero or Brut Natural, and the words "Non-dosage" might appear on the label somewhere. That doesn't mean that it's easy to find, though. It is not all that popular, although there is definitely a niche for it. And some producers use very little sugar in the dosage, so tasting those wines gives a pretty good idea of the character of non-dosage Champagne.

Some producers include information on the back of the bottle including the disgorgement date and the dosage level, something I wish they would all do. Look at the label from the back of the NV Tarlant Brut Zero - if only all Champagne bottles provided this much information!

Here are a couple of non-dosage bubblies I've tasted, along with some notes:

NV Tarlant Brut Zero, $41 at Chambers Street Wines.
Grower Champagne. Bright, fresh, and clean - such a pure feeling. The red fruits are sweet and delicious, but the wine is slender and elegant in the mouth. Nice biscuits to go with the fruit. Just delicious wine, and incredibly clean and well delineated flavors. I must say, I wouldn't have guessed this is non-dosage Champs because there was plenty of sweetness. Probably because the fruit is mostly 2003, a hot year that produced super-ripe grapes. Tarlant has a great website too - check it out.

1999 Pierre Gimonnet Oenophile Maxi Brut, at a tasting. Grower Champagne. This was quite obviously non-dosage wine. Very saline, like beach air, and full of chalky minerals. There is some fruit in there, but this wine is more about the interaction of minerals and nuts. Not my favorite as an aperitif, but what about with shellfish, or dare I say...caviar? An intense and wonderful Champagne experience.

2000 Chateau Tour Grise Saumur Brut Non Dose, $16 at Slope Cellars.
There are sparklers made outside of Champagne, I hesitatingly admit, and some of them are made without sugar in the dosage. This one comes from biodynamically farmed vineyards in the Loire Valley. And it's got some age on it too. Not much mousse left in this one, with weakish bubbles. And the wine is deep gold with plenty of orange hints. It is quite funky at first, but after 10 minutes the nose was all about clementine oranges and honey cake, and the palate echoed this exactly with some minerals too on the finish. An interesting mature wine with no real sweetness to it at all. I think this would be great with a charcuterie plate or with cheese.

Here are some other esteemed Champagne producers making non-dosage or low dosage wines:

Larmandier-Bernier Terre de Vertus - I hear this is top of the tops. Their other wines are low dosage, this is non-dosage. Pierre Moncuit, Drappier, and Boulard are next to taste on my list. What about you - any non-dosage wines to recommend or opinions / stories to relate?

Some $15 Beauties from the Loire Valley

The end of the year holidays are already here, and although it is a joyous time, it can also be a stressful time. And what better to do when feeling a bit stressed out by holiday, family, work, and general end-of-the-year craziness? Why, drink wine, of course. But not every night can be a fancy wine night, so here are a couple of lovely wines that are under $15. And you should be able to find these wines rather easily too, if you're so inclined. You can open them whenever you want without feeling guilty - Monday night, Wednesday morning, whenever the mood or the stress strikes you, and why feel bad? These are truly delicious and interesting, and we're talking about less than 15 bucks here - you can't even take a friend to the movies for that price.

The first is another great winter white, the 2005 Domaine du Vieux Pressoir Saumur Blanc Elegance, ($13 Sip Fine Wines). This is a crisp and delicious wine that works great as an aperitif (read: just drink it, no food necessary) and would work well with a range of fish, chicken, or pork dishes. It is made a sec tendre, or tender dry wine, meaning that it is dry but it has a bit of residual sugar. It has a heady perfume and it feels full and round on the palate, but it is clean and fresh too. I was honestly quite surprised by the quality of this wine at this price, although I shouldn't have been because I very much enjoyed the Saumur Brut Methode Traditionelle I tasted by Vieux Pressoir recently. This is a producer whose wines I might need to explore a bit further.

Alice Feiring gave her wine of the year award to Clos Roche Blanche's L'Arpent Rouge. I like her definition of wine of the year - much more compelling than top 100 lists and things like that. L'Arpent Rouge is made from Pineau D'Aunis, an old and not much used anymore grape that a few Loire Valley producers like Clos Roche Blanche and Belliviere are reviving. Reviving might be the wrong word - they're not touting the grape, per say, or suggesting that others follow suit. They are simply making good wines using a grape that is traditional to the area, wines that will appeal to folks who already are interested in Loire Valley reds, Beaujolais,...you know, not big and powerfully extracted huge reds.

But L'Arpent Rouge is gone, as far as I can tell. So how to get your Pineau D'Aunis fix during the holiday season? I recommend the very unfortunately names You Are So Beautiful, made by Christian Chaussard and Nathalie Gaubicher of Domaine le Briseau, but via their negociant label called Nana Vins et Cie. The 2006 Nana Vins et Cie Coteaux du Loir You Are So Beautiful (about $15 wherever Dressner wines are sold) is really an excellent wine, no matter how much you might want to reject it based on its annoying name. It is a blend of Pineau D'Aunis and Malbec, but it is the Pineau D'Aunis that shines here. Light, elegant, very peppery and floral, you're gonna love the nose - it's unlike anything you're used to (unless you bought lots of L'Arpent Rouge). This is light colored and light bodied wine. It goes down so easy that it's actually kind of scary. Very good on its own, and completely flexible with food - think duck to omelets to fish to vegetable soup to whatever you want, this is as good as the best Bistro wine you can think of.

If you object to being objectified by Christian Chaussard and Nathalie Gaubicher, and refuse to drink this wine on the principal that they are complimenting your looks in exchange for purchasing and imbibing their juice, you could always go with You Are So Nice instead, a blend of Gamay and Malbec. But I prefer the Pineau D'Aunis. It's the holidays - let them tell you that you're beautiful.

Brooklynguy Stops Being a Hater and Learns to Appreciate "Other" Sparkling Wines

Feel like Champagne every night? I do. Actually, I feel like Champagne most days with lunch too, and I'm not completely adverse to it with breakfast on the weekends. We cannot give in to our every whim though, can we? So instead I'm trying to keep it to a weekly indulgence.

As the dollar continues to suck, this means between $35-40 per week on Champs. That's about 2 thousand dollar a year habit! Harder to swallow, when you put it that way. It's about time that I find some sparkling wines that make me really happy, and that cost between $12-20, like most of the wine we drink on a daily basis.

There are some wines that just don't cooperate in that price range, like Pinot Noir. Very rarely do I find a Pinot in that range that delivers true Pinot pleasure. I suspect that sparkling wine is not as difficult as Pinot - there are many sparklers that can deliver great pleasure. They will not be as deep or as elegant, as powerful or as focused as good Champagne. And Champagne is so much more ---STOP--- it man, we're not talking about Champagne anymore. Just get over it and stick to the point! (~ed.)

Sorry, I just got a little angry at myself.

Okay, back to what I was saying about other sparklers. It's not like I've never enjoyed them before. I have to branch out some more, have a little faith, that's all. Of course I'm going to start in the Loire Valley with this, as there's great sparkling Vouvray and Saumur to be had. I had some a few years ago, before I fell in love with Champagne ---STOP IT--- and I remember liking NV Foreau Vouvray Petillant (petillant means fizzy, mildly sparkling) a whole lot. But that's like $25 now! If I'm not drinking you-know-what then I'm not spending more than 20 smacks either.

So here are two Loire Valley sparklers that I enjoyed lately in the $12-20 price range. They're not as good as Ch@~*^+;, but they certainly have their charms and are worth seeking out if like me, you're in over your head with the "real" stuff.

NV Domaine du Vieux Pressoir Saumur Brut Methode Traditionelle, ($15 Astor Wines). Saumur sparklers tend to be a bit cheaper than their friends from Vouvray. This is only the second one I've tried, and like the first, this one is an excellent value. I was worried when I opened it though because it started off super flinty, flinty and smoky to the exclusion of anything else on the nose. But this balanced out after about 15 minutes, and the wine was really quite nice. Flinty still, but with some green apple and citrus notes, and a nice floral mouth perfume after swallowing. A bruiser of a sparkler, but excellent with food and very high quality in general. A $15 Beauty, I would suggest.

Domaine du Vieux Pressoir makes three sparklers. Their rose, which I believe is what they are better known for, is all Cabernet Franc. This one is a blend of 70/30 Chenin Blanc to Chardonnay.

NV Domaine des Aubuisieres Vouvray Brut, ($20 Astor Wines). I have become a big fan of Mssr. Fouquet's still wine, so why not give the sparkler a shot? This wine was more refined than the Saumur, offering a lighter nose of apple and hints of wet stones and flowers. Quite dry and mineral on the palate too, with ripe fresh fruit. Very nice indeed. Hard to compare to the Saumur because the styles are so different. But if I were forced to say, I'm not sure that the Aubuisieres wine is worth 33% more than the Saumur, as the price demands.

I will not stop here, friends. More Loire Sparklers to come, as well as whatever else I taste in the under $20 price range that merits writing about. Want to help get this Champagne singe off my back? What are your favorite under $20 sparklers?

A Brooklyn Moment

I was ready to write about two wines I revisited in the past week that are special to me, both from the 2001 vintage, both Pinot Noir. So I got home from work, washed my hands (there's flu everywhere now, pal - soap and water is a must, like 5 times a day), made a little something to eat and sat down at the computer ready to go.

I'll tell you, these bagels from Terrace Bagel are still delicious, two days later. My extended family came in from out of town Saturday to "view" my very pregnant wife, essentially. At 8 in the morning on Saturday I walked a mile through frozen streets to Terrace Bagel to pick up a couple dozen and some smoked fish. This place is worth it though, particularly their pumpernickel, the most underrated of bagels.

Anyway, back to the 2001 Pinots. But I should just say one thing about this whitefish salad too. They do a great job with it, creamy but with plenty of whitefish lumps, salty and smoky, and somehow light at the same time. Calls out for a few thin slices of red onion, which I am lucky to have going on right now. Whitefish salad on a pumpernickel - fughedaboutit.

So the 2001's. One is a Volnay, one is from Oregon. You know, I made this salad dressing with anchovies and lots of good red wine vinegar the other day. I bet it would be great on some salad greens with my bagel. That vinegary taste in the dressing combined with the savory whitefish...it's just sound food science.

Both of these Pinots were really good when we tried them a while ago, but they might not be holding up too well. So we decided to revisit them this past week. What would be a good wine to drink with whitefish on pump with salad? Clearly not this Cahors I've been meaning to try - to heavy. Not the New Jersey (!) Sangiovese my cousins brought for me on Saturday. Ah, perfect - an inexpensive but yummy sparkling wine from the Loire Valley, a Chateau du Hureau Saumur Brut NV, $11.

Bagels and smoked fish is usually brunch food, and people tend to go with sparklers for brunch. So why not now, on a Monday night? This wine clocks in at 12% alcohol, which is nice and reasonable. There are a few really nice sparkling wines from Saumur. In fact, I think this sparkler can give any non-Champagne a run for it's money. Hureau makes serious still wine too, not just sparkling wine. Take a peek at this piece from Jancis Robinson last March. I agree with her assessment of the '04 whites - they're not giving too much right now (even though now is almost a year after she wrote that piece).

Their sparkler is great with my dinner though. I hereby abandon all attempts to write about my 2001 Pinots, and instead give into my Brooklyn moment: whitefish salad on a pumpernickel bagel for dinner on Monday night.

NV Chateau du Hureau Saumur Brut, $11.
Fine, sparse bead. Lovely aromas of green apple, lemon, and fresh cut wheat. More like a petillant (fizzy, not as bubbly as Champagne, for example) than a sparkling wine, this wine feels good on the tongue, and it compliments the smokey and savory whitefish salad perfectly. Fresh flavors, apple and citrus, some minerality. It holds its own against red onion slices too.

Next time, really - a couple of 2001 Pinots.