Mega Champagne tasting

[bacchaebabe]

I know there was a couple of forumites who attended this yesterday at the Alexandria version of the local big barn. Pretty generous tasting actually and a fantastic opportunity to run right through a very large range of champagnes and sparkling wines. I felt a bit ill after all this and clearly you can have too much of a good thing. I didn't taste them all but gave it a pretty good bash.

Here are my impressions from the day:

96 Salon Intense yeast, intense lime, sweet honey and lemon. Very fresh and young tasting. Very linear and tonnes of acid. Certainly built for the long haul. 96
NV Krug Only my second tasting of Krug but I have to say I like it quite a bit. Lively yeasty nose. Clean bready taste of fresh sourdough and a light lemon butter. Quite light pale yellow in colour. A really beautiful champagne. 97
03 Moet 100% Pinot Meunier from a difficult year. Apparently the juice ran red on this. Very different flavour profile to usual champagne. Big nose and quite a spicy palate. Short and sharp with touches of vanilla. Palate fades away to nothing and it's very dry. Quite unusual and not like anything I've tried before. I must say that I wasn't fond at all. 86
02 Veuve Cliquot Predominantly pinot and 33% chardonnay and 7% pinot meunier. Brilliant honey nose. Very pretty florals and a round and mouthfilling texture. Quite dry with a decent swathe of acid. I liked this a lot. 95
NV Tattinger Quite coarse bubbles and frothed up a lot in the glass. Bready, honey nose. Big bead made it feel like a soft drink in comparison to the preceeding champagnes. Pale yellow colour. Quite subtle falvours. Elegant once the bubbles settled down a bit. Nice champagne. 93
NV Laurent Perrier Pale yellow and also quite frothy. Bready lemons on the nose. I really liked this a lot. Lots of flavour and good body and complexity. Some musk and brioche and quite a mouthful. 93
99 Laurent Perrier Slightly darker. Quite sweet. Lovely mouthfilling lemon and lime. A much bigger in your face style with some substance, which I like. 94
NV Laurent Perrier Cuvee Rose Lemon nose but a bit dull and a slight cardboard dull taste. It just wasn't fresh and jumping out of the glass at all. I thought it was corked and they opened another bottle but it wasn't much better. I think there was something wrong with both of these bottles. Either that or I really just don't like it at all and it's a very dumb wine. NR
NV Piper Heidsieck Fresh bright and quite a yummy clean lemon style. Much better than what I thought it would be and for the price that's been going around on this brand lately, it's very good buying. 93
Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve disgorged 07 Very yeasty vegemite nose. Quite dry and a bit too bland and yeasty for my liking. 88
99 Joseph Perrier Full on yeasty nose and a strange aftertaste. Quite sweet but a bit sickly too. 87
NV Joseph Perrier BrutStill lots of yeast in this one or maybe I'm just having palate fatigue. Dryer on the palate but still not very pleasant or my style. A tad cardboardy too but not in a corked way - in a dry cardboard way, if that makes any sense. 87
NV Lanson A lot better for my palate than the Joseph Perriers. Light yellow colour. Big bubbles with a dash of lemon and well judged yeast. Very easy drinking and another bargain with the current pricing on these. 93
98 Lanson Pale yellow - actually the colour was much the same for all the champagnes. Nose of brioche, yeast and sherbert. Everything in balance though. Well judged yeast and a clean touch of lemon and good acid. Will cellar well. 94
NV Brut Louis Roederer Big nose on this. I actually quite liked it and wasn't expecting to based on a previous tasting. Medium dry style. Yeast and lime and a dash of honey making it that little bit more interesting. 93
NV Billicart Salmon Brut Really lovely delicate style and is back up there with the best of them. Balanced yeast with judicious sweetness. 95
Billicart Salmon Rose Very light tinge of pink but still mostly yellow. I usually love this one but I wasn't so super-impressed with this. Might have been the bottle. Clean and lovely but no typical rose finesse. 93
02 Arras Saltwater nose. Very clean. Almost a relief after all the yeastiness of all the champagnes. Like a palate cleanser really. Not so cloying and it certainly holds its own in this company. Briney oyster shells which makes me think it would be one of the best matches for oysters going around. 94
99 Pol Roger Back to the overt yeast here. Buckets of flavour and full bodied - A big style but far too yeasty for me. 89
NV Pol Roger Cleaner nose and fresher and dryer than the vintage version but the Queen can keep these. I'm with the Prince of Wales and Laurent Perrier when it comes to the Royal Warrants. It also had a flat strange almost metallic sweetness than I didn't particularly like. 89
NV Bollinger Also a very yeasty style. The queen clearly likes them big although I do prefer the Bolly to the Pol. A bit more lemon and sweet lollies, maybe jelly snakes or something. 90
Nicolas Feuillate Brut Reserve Particuliere This is a fuller style without being over the top like the preceeding wines. Nose very clean and a lovely yeast with lemon feshening it all up. Very good indeed. 93
Hanging Rock Cuvee 8 This is around $95 retail and has apparently spent 11 years on lees. I guess that's where the price comes in but I'm hard pressed to understand the value. Big nose with a bit of sea water but not as elegant as the Arras. Very different style and a bit simple really in this company. Good for $30 but not for $95

Overall, the yeastiness of some of the bigger styles really put me off and I can still taste them now. Maybe they need food. Going to need a couple of weeks break from champagnes I think. In fact I can't even think about vegemite right now either. There's a very clear jump up for the prestige brands though. It was certainly a great opportunity to taste all these side by side and get a clear idea of my own preferences too.

[Gary W]

Bloody good going to have 96 Salon on taste..
GW

[rens]

Some great notes-thanks.
I popped along to the Brisbane version. I could only manage about 4 tastes. Champagne is not my thing but one here and there is nice. I liked the 96 Salon but agree that I liked the Krug better.

[TiggerK]

Great notes there Kris, thanks for that, I would have loved to try the Salon 1996, so interesting too see your thoughts on it. No doubt best in ten years or so.

Looks like a bit of a yeast frenzy, at least you've now got a couple of weeks off before the next big Champers tasting!!

I've had Mumm NV, Bollinger NV and the Lanson 98 over the past week, all very different styles indeed. Mumm quite nice now but not stunning, Bollinger more full on, less acid, malo yeasty style, Lanson sharp acid which will be great with a little time or the right food.

Going to be really interesting to see what people bring to the NS/IW tasting group! Don't think I can stretch to Salon though...

Cheers
TiggerK


P.S Interesting that Moet skipped 2002... Veuve did well, wonder what happened there, must have a google.

[bacchaebabe]

Moet are holding the 02 back. The rep was there and I asked that very question. It will come out but with a little more age and she said it's a good vintage.

[bacchaebabe]

Oh yeah, and only one bottle of the 96 Salon (unsurprisingly) and one of the NV Krug on tasting. Plenty of the rest though. I went especially to taste the Salon and was one of the first in line, nice and early. It was all gone within about ten minutes of opening but I did see people there saying, "This champagne costs $500!" clearly having little idea of what it was.

[orpheus]

Of your list, I have tasted the 2002 Veuve, the Lanson, and the Krug.

I'm with you on all of them. The 2002 VEuve in particular is excellent (and much better than the non-vintage, which is a bit light for my tastes), the Lanson has been ridiculously good value at the big chains, and the Krug is, of course, great, if you like monsters (which I do).

As for the Moet; I haven't had it, but the last bottle of non-vintage (which I had much earlier in the year) was quite similar in style (I thought) to the Lanson. I liked it better than the non-vintage Veuve (also on show that night), though the majority present at the tasting didn't).

[Mike Hawkins]

Moet are holding the 02 back. The rep was there and I asked that very question. It will come out but with a little more age and she said it's a good vintage.

There's a few houses releasing 03 before 02. In my experience, the 03s are verging on flabbiness (it was the really hot European summer where many people sadly died), hence the need to sell them sooner rather than later. The 02s, if vintage conditions have been exploited correctly, should be great.

Mike

[monghead]

Great notes Kris. Thank you.

Thought they would have opened the '97 Salon though, being the current release.

[griff]

I went to the Perth version but only took down brief notes. The bottle faults were running at a high percentage in this group with 3 bottles at least and maybe 4 (if the LP Rose was scalped). I didn't get a chance to see how many were using Diamant corks unfortunately.

96 Salon
Piercing yet balance is the key word. Some toast and lovely lemon curd. Was Excellent but no doubt too young. Effortless balance though!

NV Krug
Brassy colour. Very toasty with mushrooms and some suncream on there. This also was Excellent but completely different yet again to the last three times. Krug (in Perth at least) is so variable!

03 Moet
Soft and round with a short finish.

02 Veuve Cliquot
Powerful fruit that is quite primary. Greatest fruit weight of all the wines today. Excellent!

NV Tattinger
Somewhat agressive and coarse.

NV Laurent Perrier
Red apples and slightly musky in a very nice way. Very Good indeed.

99 Laurent Perrier
Closed

NV Laurent Perrier Cuvee Rose
Closed on the nose and palate. Was thinking scalped but after what Kris said I wonder if this wine just sucks! Would be a shame as a few years ago this was oneof my fave roses

NV Piper Heidsieck
Great value. Medium weight with nothing out of place. Quite primary.

Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve Mis en Cave 2004
Toast on the nose with very good balance indeed and complexity. Excellent wine and equal QPR winner.

98 Joseph Perrier Brut
OK palate but aldehydic/chemical finish that turned me off.

NV Lanson
Another great value. Very malic at present but good palate weight.

98 Lanson
Crisp +++ and perhaps a little shrill at present but a great one for the cellar. Good with a lot of potential.

NV Brut Louis Roederer
Similar to the C. Heidsieck but a touch less powerful.

NV Billicart Salmon Brut
Sherbet citric acid that had good palate weight and fine bead. Very Good

NV Billicart Salmon Rose
Red fruit perhaps but didn't get the sherbet the standard one had so a notch below.

99 Pol Roger
Would agree this is yeasty but was pretty good. NOt a patch on the 98 though.

Nicolas Feuillate Brut Reserve Particuliere
Primary and a weighty palate but bead was a little coarse and aggressive.

Jaquesson 732
First bottle was bitter and mouldy. The second was quite funky and briny. Oysters came to mind. Interesting but certainly not a crowd-pleaser (and that is what the majority of champagne is for, no?)

99 Jacquart
Tight and crisp with some toast. Medium weight and balanced. Equal QPR with the C. Heidsieck

cheers

Carl

[mmeyer]

Kris,

Good to see you are drinking well-where was this tasting at?

mark meyer

[monghead]

Kris,

Good to see you are drinking well-where was this tasting at?

mark meyer

Dan Murphy's Alexandria.

[smithy]

Awesome notes Kris.
I'm Green with envy.
Love to taste more Salons.
Cheers
Smithy

[bacchaebabe]

Kris,

Good to see you are drinking well-where was this tasting at?

mark meyer

Mark! Wow, long time no hear! Have you been lurking for a while or something. Good to hear from you anyway. Hope all's well.

And Hi Smithy.

Yep, it was a good tasting indeed.