Vendanges after Vendanges : Agnès's blog

Last year, the guys at Transatlantic Bubbles had two of our cuvees tasted by Josh Raynolds from Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar.

The two reviews were really good with marks of 91 for the Absolument Brut and 92 for the 2002 vintage.

Most of the wines Jeff and Mike's selection got brillant reviews which shows how reliable these two can be when they taste. This was certainly not a big news to me ! (you might think my opinion is biased given that they have been importing our Champagne in the US for 4 years now, but they are amongst the most knowledgeable people I know about wine).

Nevertheless I suppose it is as nice for them to be recognised for their wise selection of Champagnes as it is for us for our Champagnes.

First and most importantly a very happy new year to those who read this blog (yep, happy new year to the two of you...)

Let's have projects, let's have fun and let's have bubbles !

In 2009, one of my project for the New Year was to buy some barrels and to have my first vinifcation in them. I had a clear idea of I wanted without a clue one how to achieve my goal.

I wanted the vanilla, the caramel the onctuosity without the sharp oak notes.

I got insights from fellow wine-makers who worked with barrels and I eventually bought 6 second-hand burgundy barrels in Santenay.

At harvest 2009, some Chardonnay from Avize ended up fermenting in those 6 barrels, first racking 10 days after, another racking at the end of march 2010.

Bottling occured on July 27th. Half the batch was closed with the standard capsule+bidule and the other half with a cork and a metal clip (all the details in this post).

These bottles are now 16 months old. This means that I could put them on the market. I won't but the appellation d'origine contrôlée Champagne allows to sell bottles after 15 months.

But as patience is certainly not my main virtue, I had to open some and taste the difference !

It is a diffucult exercice to taste such wines objectively, I put so much effort and expectation in them.

And as objectively as I can be, I have to admit they both are delicious... 

I actually tasted them three times over december.

And each time I was amazed to see (taste) how different they are.

I was expecting the capsule+bidule champagne to be more mature but it is actually the opposite. I feel like the cork+clip will need much more time to develop. 

The oakiness of the barrel shows more in the cork+clip champagne, with  tropical fruit and ripe banana, but it remains discreet and fondu (what could be the word in English for that ?)

Globally, what really struck me was how fast they were changing. They are blooming adolescant at the monment. They would love Hello Kitty on Monday, Justin Bieber on Tuesday, Rihanna by Thursday and before the end of the week, they would ask you for your Sergeant Pepper album.

So I shall give them a bit more time.

 Have a wonderful Christmas !

 Mireille is a bottle of Champagne. Well, Mireille is all bottles of Champagne Corbon. She (yes, Mireille is a girl) travels the world (you can check picture here).

Well, Mireille is getting ready for Christmas but kinda got lost in the Chistmas Tree.

Can you spot her ?

Answer on Christmas'eve !

Who is in Decanter this month ?

Well ... Me ! (amongst other, but is that even worth mentionning ?). Well it is not me Agnès, but the Brut d'Autrefois and the Brut Prestige.

For the first time, Decanter has tasted grower champagnes and our champagnes were amongst the 94 champagne tasted.

Part of the panel was Michael Edwards who wrote the very documented and beautifully illustrated The Finest Wines of Champagne.

If REALLY you want to know who else made it to Decanter 3-star recommended Champagne list, you can dowload it here.

Both the Brut d'Autrefois and the Prestige get the 3-star recommendation, no Champagne amongst the 94 tasted got the 5-star Decanter award. And it seems that the 6 members of the panel were surprised by that result as each of them expected at least one. But it seems that as grower champagnes have stronger personnalities it is difficult to find one which would please the 6 of them. Let's see that as the proof of the diversity in excellence of Grower Champagnes !