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, Champagne: New Releases and Collectibles, 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:

See All Champagnes Reviewed in 2014

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.