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Champagne: 2021 New Releases
France: Champagne, featured
, Nov 2021
After a brutal year in 2020 in which sales slumped dramatically, Champagne has come back with a vengeance. Demand and enthusiasm are high, no doubt buoyed by a return to more or less ‘normal’ conditions, whatever that means these days. Readers will find an extraordinary range of Champagnes in the market that span the entire stylistic spectrum ranging from the glitziest grande marque new releases to small-production artisan bottlings.
Champagne: 2020 New Releases
France: Champagne, featured
, Nov 2020
For the first time in a dozen years, this past spring I was unable to travel to Champagne to taste the new vintage and survey the latest releases. Given the extraordinary challenges this year of both traveling and collecting hundreds of samples in a timely fashion, we will be publishing Champagne reviews within this article in a continuous stream over coming weeks and months, as I taste the wines. This latest installment covers wines tasted in October and November 2020. The best way to stay up to date on additions is to make sure you are receiving our emails and turn on notifications within the Vinous app.
Krug: 2006 In Three Acts
France: Champagne, featured
, Sep 2020
Clos du Mesnil is one of the most revered sites in Champagne. Rémi and Henri Krug bought the 1.84-hectare vineyard in 1971 with the goal of securing a high-quality fruit source. But once they started working with the fruit, they realized they had something special. The first Clos du Mesnil, the 1979, remains epic to this day. Although not be design, Clos du Mesnil is also the archetype for what many grower Champagnes would later become – single vineyard, single variety, single vintage wines. I recently had the chance to taste the 2006 Clos du Mesnil, the latest release, with Olivier Krug over Zoom, which is how everything seems to happen these days.
Roses de Jeanne La Bolorée Retrospective
France: Champagne, Verticals & Retrospectives, featured
, Mar 2020
"What would you like to taste?” Cédric Bouchard asks as we descend into his cellar. We are in the middle of a brutal heat wave in France. The cool cellar provides a much-needed break from the unrelenting heat. “Really, whatever you want,” Bouchard says, sensing my apprehension as I gaze at a stunning collection of bottles, but not wanting to ask for too much….
Cristal in Magnum: It’s Another World
France: Champagne, Verticals & Retrospectives, featured
, Dec 2019
I have had a number of unforgettable and deeply educational tastings at Roederer over the years. This was one of the most fascinating. It is well known that wines show better from magnums. That is especially true with Champagne. But why? Roederer’s long time Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon pulled out a remarkable selection of Cristal and Cristal Rosés earlier this year to show exactly why.
Champagne – 2019 Fall Releases
France: Champagne, featured
, Dec 2019
Readers will find a wide range of new releases in the market this fall, everything from tiny-production Champagnes to the latest from the grandes marques. The pace of change in Champagne continues to be incredibly rapid, with new, small domaines popping up left and right while the big brands expand their ranges and increase quality. All of that makes Champagne an incredibly exciting and dynamic region to follow.
The 2019 Champagne Summer Preview
France: Champagne, featured
, Jul 2019
I tasted a wide range of wines during two highly educational visits to Champagne this year. Our Summer Preview includes everything from reviews of new releases coming into the market, from both grower domaines and grand marques, as well as notes on a handful of collectibles. The pace of change on the ground is dizzying, which makes Champagne one of the most dynamic regions in the world today.
Cellar Favorite: 2014 Champagne Christophe Baron Brut Nature Les Hautes Blanches Vignes
France: Champagne, cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites
, Jun 2019
The 2014 Brut Nature Les Hautes Blanches Vignes is the first wine I have tasted from Christophe Baron’s new project in Champagne, and it is magnificent.
Cristal – The 1980s…A Decade of Change
France, France: Champagne, featured
, Dec 2018
A recent vertical of 1980s Cristals was the third chapter in a remarkable series of tastings I have been fortunate to experience at Roederer over the last few years. In each of those occasions, I have come away with a deeper understanding of what makes Cristal and Cristal Rosé so special. For this tasting, longtime Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon presented a complete vertical of the 1980s Cristals, all from the original disgorgements, for what turned out to be an unforgettable survey of a decade during which so much changed in Champagne.
Champagne – The Season’s New Releases
France: Champagne, featured
, Nov 2018
I came away from my annual fall Champagne tastings absolutely exhilarated by the quality of the wines. As it turns out, I reviewed most of the new releases from the grandes marques in our Summer Preview, so this article focuses heavily on grower Champagnes. That is merely a coincidence, or maybe in the end, it isn’t. As I scan through the domaines covered in this article I can’t help but pause to think about how much Champagne has changed in just the last decade or so.