Champagne: The Season’s New Releases

Champagne fans have plenty to look forward to, as the fall
season brings with it a number of fabulous new releases and plenty of occasions
to enjoy them.

With Vinous now in full swing, this year we were able to
something we had always wanted to do which is offer year-round coverage of
Champagne. Although there are plenty of new and upcoming releases in this
article, I encourage readers to check our Spring Preview, <a target="_blank" href="http://vinousmedia.com/articles/champagne-new-releases-and-collectibles-may-2014">Champagne: New Releases and
Collectibles</a>, which covers a number of the finest
wines from the region. We have also made it easy to search the database of all
wines reviewed in 2014:

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinousmedia.com/wines?commit=Search&amp;q=champagne&amp;sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=%28hover+for+commentary%29+producer&amp;utf8=%E2%9C%93&amp;wf_c0=review_date_year&amp;wf_dirty=false&amp;wf_export_fields=&amp;wf_export_format=&amp;wf_id=&amp;wf_match=all&amp;wf_model=Wine&amp;wf_name=&amp;wf_o0=is_in_the_range&amp;wf_order=vintage&amp;wf_order_type=desc&amp;wf_page=1&amp;wf_per_page=25&amp;wf_submitted=true&amp;wf_type=WillFilter%3A%3AFilter&amp;wf_v0_0=2014&amp;wf_v0_1=2014&amp;wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Bcolor%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Bcountry%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Bprice_range_max%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Bprice_range_min%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Bproducer_id%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Breview_date_year_range_max%5D=2014&amp;wine_filter%5Breview_date_year_range_min%5D=2014&amp;wine_filter%5Bscore_range_max%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Bscore_range_min%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Bvintage_range_max%5D=&amp;wine_filter%5Bvintage_range_min%5D=">See All Champagnes Reviewed in 2014</a>

The Problem With 2011…

Last May, I wrote about some of the
issues surrounding NV Champagnes based on the 2011 vintage. At the time, I
hoped the green, vegetal notes afflicting some wines might lessen over time.
Instead, the exact opposite has happened. Those notes have only become more accentuated
since the spring. While preparing this article I ran across countless wines with
harsh, vegetal notes. Like Burgundy, Champagne suffered from a challenging
growing season in 2011. In tasting through the NV Champagnes based on 2011, I
found the same strident, vegetal flavors that are also characteristic of the
2011s and 2004s in Burgundy, specifically excessively green notes that are
often attributed to high ladybug populations. Perhaps because of the higher
yields used to make Champagne the vegetal characteristics are more evident than
they are in the still wines of Burgundy because there is less fruit
concentration to mask any rough edges. I urge readers to be especially
selective when it comes to the current crop of NV Champagnes. 

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1416603924964-Hautvillers+-+vinous.jpg">

The modern-day Hautvillers Abbey, where Dom Pérignon spent most of his
lifeWhy Disgorgement Dates MatterI want you to know you are buying the same wines I taste, review and recommend. That is pretty easy to do with vintage Champagnes, but next to impossible to do with NV Champagnes unless the wines are clearly labeled and differentiated from release to release. Without some type of clear identifier there is no way for consumers to know if the wine they are buying is the same wine I tasted, a ridiculous state of affairs that exists with no other wine.Ideally, a NV Champagne back label would indicate the base vintage (an even greater indication of the qualities of a given wine) plus the disgorgement date, both of which are helpful to consumers. Let me be clear. Newer disgorgements aren’t better or more desirable than older disgorgements, they are just different. There are times when older disgorgements are preferable, as the wines have had more time on the cork to recover post-bottling and to develop nuance.&nbsp;As has been my policy for several years, I only review non-vintage wines with a disgorgement date or some other easily visible, consumer-friendly labeling, such as the ID codes producers have begun to introduce recently. I am happy to report that the number of wineries that now include information on disgorgement dates, base vintages and/or other information on their NV Champagnes is growing, which is great for the consumer.&nbsp;All of the wines in this article were
tasted in Fall 2014. A number of houses did not have new
releases in the market since our last article, but where possible, I went back
and tasted wines again&nbsp;for reference.&nbsp;

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Ages</a> (Oct 2014)

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinousmedia.com/articles/taittinger-comtes-de-champagne-rose-1985-2006-jul-2014">Taittinger Comtes de
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Salon and Delamotte: 1970-2004</a> (May 2014)

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinousmedia.com/articles/champagne-new-releases-and-collectibles-may-2014">Champagne: New Releases and
Collectibles</a> (May 2014)

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinousmedia.com/articles/2013-champagne-the-vins-clairs-apr-2014">2013 Champagne: The Vins
Clairs</a> (April 2014)

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinousmedia.com/articles/cristal-and-icons-from-piedmont-and-bordeaux-at-marea-oct-2014">Cristal and Icons from
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(Mar 2014)

-- Antonio Galloni

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