2013 Champagne: The Vins Clairs

The 2013 vintage was extremely
challenging throughout France, but most of Champagne was spared the worst. In the Côte
des Blancs in particular&nbsp;the best Chardonnays are drop-dead gorgeous.

I recently spent a week in Champagne
tasting through the young vins clairs,
something I have done for a number of years. I visited a number of estates,
both small and large. Champagne is fascinating for so many reasons, among them the
parallel existence of two very different and complementary cultures. The big, luxurious
houses aren’t too dissimilar from what one often sees in Bordeaux, while the
typical grower’s cellar could be easily mistaken for something right out of
Burgundy. Large houses offer the best global perspective on vintages because
they make wines from a large number of villages across the region. Tasting at
smaller growers, on the other hand, often provides greater insights as to the
performance of a single village and/or grape. My initial thoughts are based on tastings of 2013s at Bereche, Ulysse Collin, Henri Giraud, Jacquesson, Georges Laval, Moët et Chandon, Philipponnat, Pierre Péters, Jerôme Prévost, Roederer, Ruinart, Savart, Camille Saves, Taittinger and Tarlant. A few houses I visited rarely show&nbsp;vins clairs&nbsp;(Dom Pérignon comes to mind), but I tasted plenty of compelling wines I will be sharing with readers shortly. Below are some of the many highlights of the week I spent tasting the 2013&nbsp;vins clairs. Reviews of new releases will follow in about two weeks’ time.

The 2013 Growing Season

In 2013, the most critical part of
the year was the flowering, which took place later than normal&nbsp;under cool, damp
conditions. Vineyards that flowered during the worst weather were severely
affected by coulure and millerandage, while plots that flowered
outside of that band set a normal crop. Paradoxically,
vineyards with no issues during flowering had a very hard time ripening their
crop because the rest of the season was cool and very long. On the other hand,
vineyards where yields were naturally lowered by the poor flowering had a
chance to ripen. In most parts of the region the summer was uneventful, as
Champagne emerged largely unscathed from the violent storms that devastated so
many vineyards in the Loire, Burgundy, Bordeaux&nbsp;and other regions in France. The Aube,
which is actually closer to Chablis, is the exception, as the weather was
especially challenging in this district. The harvest took place in late
September and early October, virtually unheard of by today’s standards. Vineyards
that struggled to ripen became susceptible to outbreaks of rot as the season
progressed into the fall.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1398869636229-Ch-Roederer.jpg"> Roederer:
Chardonnay from the Volibart lieu-dit in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger

The Wines

As a result of the challenging and varied conditions, quality is not surprisingly&nbsp;inconsistent across the board, although there are plenty of highs.&nbsp;The best wines, those from sites with low yields, show
tremendous concentration, depth and power allied to bright acidities and low
pHs. I am particularly impressed with the Chardonnays from the Côtes
des Blancs. I also tasted a number of excellent Chardonnays and Pinots from the
Grande Vallée (the heart of the Marne Valley) and select houses in the
Montagne de Reims. Most of the Chefs de Caves I spoke with plan on declaring the vintage, although a few cautioned that production would be down sharply.&nbsp;

Laurent Champs of Vilmart reported
picking Chardonnays at 11.5%, which is quite high. At the same time, acidity readings
are high, while pHs were low. Moët et Chandon winemaker Benoit Gouez told
me average sugars were in the 9.6%-9.8% range. According to Gouez the vintage
is strong for Chardonnay and selectively good for Pinot in places like Aÿ,
where the fruit came in at 10.5%. The south-facing vineyards of Aÿ
seem to have performed well at a number of addresses, as the relatively warm
micro-climate accelerated ripening and staved off disease. Krug’s Chef de Caves
Eric Lebel told me he brought in most of the fruit at 10.5%-10.6%, but was
mostly concerned with keeping acidities above 8% and pHs in the 2.7-2.8% range.
According to Rodolphe Péters, conditions improved
markedly after the difficult flowering and throughout&nbsp;the summer, but low yields were the key to quality.

The Essential Roederer

I have said it before, and it is
still true: there is no better place to get a handle on a new vintage than at
Roederer. Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon puts on the best vin clair tasting. Usually the samples
are prepared in advance, but this year we moved&nbsp;tank to tank, sampling several
dozen wines along the way. As is typically the case,
the wines are incredibly site specific. Even at this early stage, it is pretty
obvious which wines have the potential to be special and which do not. The overall level of quality is well above average,
with a few points of true brilliance. Purchased fruit is now only used for the NV Brut
Premier. Everything else is 100% estate. The Chardonnays are
all above 11%, while the Pinots hover in the 10.5-11.8% range, which is quite
high by today’s standards in Champagne. According to Lecaillon, all of the
great pre-1970’s vintages (before yields in Champagne&nbsp;began to go up) were ripe years. 

Krug: Behind the Scenes

Although I&nbsp;have been tasting vins clairs at Krug since the 2008
vintage, I&nbsp;have never participated in a formal session with the
entire team. Today's&nbsp;tasting is being held&nbsp;in the Krug offices, where the setting is much more functional and
decidedly less glamorous than in the public rooms. Chef de Caves Eric Lebel runs the show.&nbsp;The
entire Krug team is present, starting with CEO Margareth Henriquez, Olivier
Krug, Clos du Mesnil winemaker Julie Cavil and several members of the
vineyard and winemaking teams. A&nbsp;dozen or so bottles are passed around one by one. Each person comments on the specific wine being looked at,
and assigns a numerical score. Cavil is the most demanding taster, while Krug
and Henriquez are a bit more forgiving. The discussion reveals which attributes
each taster finds most important. Lebel listens attentively to the comments and
takes assiduous notes. It is interesting to watch the interplay of opinions. Of
course, it is virtually impossible for an outsider to judge vins clairs. Most will become part of
future Grande Cuvées. Blending
these components, often in excess of 100 wines, is an art of
understanding the degree to which single wines complement each other. Needless
to say, this front-row seat provides fascinating insights to the way wines are
made at Krug.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1398870042941-Cover2.jpg"> Tasting
vins clairs at Krug

Selosse: One of a Kind

Tasting vins clairs from barrel with Anselme Selosse feels just like being
in Burgundy. Low yields in the vineyards give the wines much more texture and
depth than is typical in Champagne. We start with the Pinots, then move our way
into the Chardonnays, all straight from barrel. The wines are utterly
breathtaking in their beauty and transparency. Even with all of their richness,
the wines are so eloquent in the way they express their origins. In a word:
stunning. Now that all of the Champagnes except for the Vintage are made in a
solera-inspired style, it is absolutely thrilling to taste the wines at this
stage, when they are untouched and brilliantly pure. What a tasting.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1398869582034-Ch-Selosse.jpg"> Tasting
the 2013s from barrel at Selosse,&nbsp;Avize

Pierre Péters: Brilliance in Chardonnay

The 2013s at Pierre Péters are strikingly
beautiful. I tasted a handful of finished blends for the entry-level Champagnes,
plus the Chetillons in two separate lots and a composed blend of that wine. Today,
the 2013 Chetillons comes across as a synthesis of 2002 and 2004. Needless to
say, that is a pretty exciting combination. There is also a new wine from the Montjolys lieu-dit in Mesnil. We finish with the L’étonnant Mr.
Victor, a blend composed of the best tank of the year from Chetillons and the best tank of the house’s perpetual
reserve, usually 50/50. First produced in 2009 but not yet commercially
released, the Victor (named after Rodolphe Péters’s son) is aged on cork, a practice
that seems to be coming back into fashion at a number of grower estates, including Bereche and Agrapart.&nbsp;The 2013 boasts impressive depth,
not to mention tons of promise for the future. It is a great way to round out this survey of 2013s at one of the top cellars in Champagne.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1398869562244-Ch-Peters.jpg"> The
range of 2013s at Pierre Péters includes two new wines, the Montjolys and&nbsp;L’étonnant Mr. Victor

Champagne coverage continues over the
next few weeks with a comprehensive look at new releases along with vertical
tastings of Salon and Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne Rosé,
plus an update on how some of the larger houses are increasing their
transparency to the consumer.

-- Antonio Galloni

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social