Champagne and Sparkling Wine Society - June '09

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All of the wines shipped with the June 2009 Champagne & Sparkling Wine Society shipment

 

The Champagne and Sparkling Wine Society – June 2009

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

I hope you’re ready to drink some great bubbles. This month we have three delicious treats for you. A Blanc de Blancs from a great grower-producer in les Mesnil-sur-Oger, a stunning Rosé from a recently rejuvenated Champagne house located in Vertus, and a delightful, Italian red sparkling dessert treat. Drink them in good health, as they are some of my favorites.

Also, keep your eyes peeled on the website over the next couple of months, as we announce some great new events, and more than a couple of other fun things, including the opportunity to order additional wines from your shipment online.

That’s all for now!

Arriba, abajo, al centro, para adentro*

Jake

To see what bubbles are coming your way, click here

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NV Marenco Pineto Brachetto d’Acqui, Piedmont

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Pineto LabelThere was such an overwhelmingly positive response to the FRV100 sweet sparkling Beaujolais, that I thought I would share another of my absolute favorite sweeter style red sparkling wines with you. The added bonus is that I finally get to recommend wine from the Champagne & Sparkling Wine society with desserts!

Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG wines from Piedmont have always been one of my favorite sommelier insider wines. Brachetto is a strange grape from the Piedmont, that may or may not be the same as the French grape Braquet which is found in the wines of Bellet, near Nice in the Languedoc. In Piedmont, the Brachetto grape makes still, sparkling, dry and sweet wines in all combinations, most of which are light red in color (but deeper than a rosé, a color that used to be referred to as claret until the British adopted this term to mean Bordeaux, presumably because the color was so light in the early days of production). Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG wines, of which this is one, are always red, frizzante (semi-sparkling), sweet, and aromatic. (Click here to see a hilarious – I thought – ad for Brachetto).

The wines are made by macerating the grapes on the skins long enough to extract a deep rosy ruby color, then allowing them to ferment only partially. Stopping the fermentation at just less than enough alcohol to call this wine, 5.5% in this case, leaves the wines softly sweet, and ready to provide for a short second fermentation in a pressurized tank that will create the bubbles (this is called the cuve close, or Charmat, or tank method, as opposed to the Méthode Champenoise, or traditional method by which Champagne, and most quality dry sparkling wines are made). The wine is then filtered (to prevent refermentation of the sugar) and bottled under pressure.

Marenco is a relatively small producer, with 65 ha of Muscat and Brachetto vines located near Strevi in Piedmont, at an altitude of 750 – 1050 ft. Marenco is a family firm, with Patricio Marenco making the wines, and the total production of this wine is about 3500 cases.

This is a wine where the aromas and flavors of fresh, wild strawberries compete with those of candied roses, and are complimented by mild hints of pepper and herbs. Try it with any dessert involving berries, or bittersweet chocolate. But it’s not a super sweet wine, so nothing too sweet. This is also wonderful with blue cheese in a way that is hard to fully explain, as it makes both the cheese and the wine wilder. Drink NOW, this wine is meant to be fresh.

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NV Duval-Leroy Rosé de Saignée à Vertus, Champagne

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Duval Leroy Rose de SaignéeThis has long been one of my favorite non-vintage rosé Champagnes, I always prefer it to the better known, and much more expensive Billecart-Salmon Rosé. But I have to admit, that it has been one of those wines that I have always taken for granted, and not learned a lot about. Thank goodness for this club, otherwise I might not have had the chance to do a bit of research.

Duval-Leroy, located in the premier cru village The Extraordinary Wine Club › Add New Post — WordPressof Vertus, was founded in 1849 with merger of two Champagne growers (whose names I haven’t readily discovered, though I have one obvious thought), and is still family owned and operated. Unusual amongst producers of their size, they own over 200 ha of vineyards throughout the Côte de Blancs, including holdings in all of the Côte de Blancs Grand Crus. The house had been a second tier producer for a long time, until Carol Duval-Leroy took over upon the death of her husband in 1991. She re-focused the brand on quality, and away from creating buyer labels (Marque d’Acheteur or MA). Many of the innovative line-up of wines that Duval-Leroy makes now were additions made during her time as president. She also has the assistance of a brilliant winemaker Hervé Jestin.

They have made great investments in equipment and staff in order to become a cutting edge producer. One of the most interesting is that they have created 5 pressing centers throughout Champagne, so that their grapes can be pressed immediately after they are picked, then trucked by refrigerated tanker to the winery.

This wine is made from 100% Pinot Noir. Unlike the majority of other rosé Champagnes, this wine is made pink by the Saignée method, which means that the juice is bled (saigner means “to bleed” in French) off of the skins after it has had just enough contact to extract some color. Champagne is the only region in France where the tradition is to make rosé from a mixture of red wine with white, in fact, it is the only place where this is legal in the EU. Though some claim that the Saignée method produces inherently better rosé Champagnes, I believe it’s more a stylistic than qualitative difference. Saignée rosés are generally fruitier and fresher tasting, whereas the traditional rosés see to me to often be richer and more Champagne-like. Witness the excellent Krug Rosé (traditional method) vs the Excellent Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Rosé (Saignée).

Anyway, try this with cheese (all sorts, except maybe strong blue), roast chicken, lentils (trust me here), and even salads containing fruit (but not sweet “fruit salads”). Drink now-2010 (freshness is the key here).

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NV Pierre Moncuit Cuvée Pierre Moncuit-Delos Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Moncuit LabelLes Mesnil-sur-Oger is the most revered of the Grand Cru Vineyards in Champagne. In the mind of many, it occupies a place among the great Grand Crus of the Côte de Beaune as a producer of the greatest that Chardonnay can offer. Two of the greatest, and most expensive, Champagnes made hale from Les Mesnil-sur-Oger are Krug Clos de Mesnil and Salon, where the deep chalk subsoil is well drained, and has a high active lime content which promotes acidity in the grapes.

Founded in 1889 by Pierre Moncuit along with his wife Odile Moncuit-Delos, the Domaine has always been based around Chardonnay from Les Mesnil-sur-Oger. Nicole and Yves Moncuit have run the family domaine since 1977, and own between Yves and Nicole Moncuit in the cellar15 and 25 hectares of vines (the sources don’t agree), with an average age of 30 years of age, and some that are as old as 90 years, in Les Mesnil-sur-Oger as well as a small vineyard in the Côte de Sezanne which goes into a separate cuvée called Hugues de Coulmet Blanc de Blancs. Nicole handles the vineyard management and winemaking, while Yves manages the commercial side of the business.

This was one of the first grower-producer, or RM (referring the abbreviation for “recoltant-manipulant” that forms the first two letters of the control number that lies in small print on the side of each bottle of Champagne), Champagnes that I ever tried: they were much less common in the United States even ten years ago. Believing that this was a fair representation of the quality of all RM Champagnes, I immediately declared that the days of the large Champagne houses were over. This was, of course an overlarge generalization, gleaned from a non-representative example (Perhaps I should have been a politician). In truth, Moncuit is one of the best Champagne Houses around, whether they grow their own grapes or not. And the wines represent a phenomenal value, because they don’t have the billion dollar marketing budget that the likes of Veuve-Clicquot pass on to their customers.

Nicole also has one particularly peculiar winemaking habit, that rubs a few reviewers the wrong way: even though most of the wines are labeled as such, she doesn’t make any truly non-vintage wines, they are almost invariably from a single vintage. She does this because it allows her to release some of the wines earlier (the minimum time on tirage for non-vintage Champagne is 15 months, as opposed to 36 months for vintage wines). This means that her non-vintage cuvees show more variation than some, because she doesn’t blend in reserve wines. That said, it’s not that much variation, and with wines this good, who cares! This wine is made up of 100% Chardonnay from Les Mesnil-sur-Oger from the 2002 vintage.

The palate offers a masterful combination of chalky acidity, and rich citrus, tree and tropical fruits, with underlying biscuit, toasty and buttery aromas and flavors. A really, really profound, and pretty powerful Champagne. Try this with just about anything, but it’s especially good with a piece of Halibut or Champagne that just came off the grill, or with anything that contains wild mushrooms. If you’re serving cheese with this, try something that is very ripe, and has plenty of salt, whether it is hard or soft. Drink now – 2015.

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