Oddly enough, the palate profile here seems just a little pinot heavy, in that there is a touch of mushroom and nuts, but on the finish, there is a lift of acidity that does brighten this up. Overall, nice complexity, and fully mature for my palate; 2000 champagnes have been drinking quite well top to bottom, and I don't see much upside in further aging here.
Pretty solid bottle of champagne, but probably the weakest of the four we had tonight. Despite the slightly riper vintage, this feels a bit lean on the palate. Quite bright, and showing plenty of low-dosage-style acid. This feels a little chardonnay dominant, with a nice hit of citrus.
Bottled July 2014, disgorged June 2018, 4 g/L dosage. This showed really well, and was probably my favourite out of the four champagnes we had tonight. There's a slight mushroomy element, as well as some oxidative tones, and the less-than-ripe vintage gives this a little boost of acidity to balance it out.
There's a rumour that there was a labelling mistake or somesuch, and a bunch of the Grande Dame ended up in the regular vintage bottling. I don't know if it's true or not, but I can say that this was a pretty tasty bottle of champagne. It shows the ripeness of the vintage, and on the back end of the palate, there's a sweet almond note. The fruit is slightly creamy and there's also a slight bit of sweetness on the palate -- perhaps it's just a hair overdosed? Plenty of acid and a fairly vigorous mousse help to cut through those riper elements.
My last bottle of this was tragically corked, and all the more tragic because of how good this wine is. It's white Burgundy made in a super old school way -- not reductive at all, but instead fat and rich and with so much raw power. The chardonnay acidity is here, but it's not the driving force behind this wine (nor is the reduction). Despite the fatness, this wine never seems ungainly or over the top. The fruit is ripe and pretty sweet, but this manages to stay very nicely balanced.
#17-16, 7.5% abv. I freely admit that now is not the best time to open a bottle of this, but I had a hankering for some sweeter riesling and this was pretty much the only bottle on hand. In any case, the nose shows a little herbal tone, as well as a nascent cheesy funk (ah, yes, classic Sonnenuhr). The super primary elements have now started to dissipate, which exposes a pretty serious scaffold of structure (both acid and extract). This has lost its youthful exuberance and we can only wait until this starts to develop secondary characteristics.
2000 Pascal Doquet Champagne Premier Cru Le Mont Aimé 90 Points
France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Oddly enough, the palate profile here seems just a little pinot heavy, in that there is a touch of mushroom and nuts, but on the finish, there is a lift of acidity that does brighten this up. Overall, nice complexity, and fully mature for my palate; 2000 champagnes have been drinking quite well top to bottom, and I don't see much upside in further aging here.
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NV Jacquesson & Fils Champagne Cuvée No. 740 88 Points
France, Champagne
Pretty solid bottle of champagne, but probably the weakest of the four we had tonight. Despite the slightly riper vintage, this feels a bit lean on the palate. Quite bright, and showing plenty of low-dosage-style acid. This feels a little chardonnay dominant, with a nice hit of citrus.
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2013 Chartogne-Taillet Champagne Extra Brut Orizeaux 93 Points
France, Champagne
Bottled July 2014, disgorged June 2018, 4 g/L dosage. This showed really well, and was probably my favourite out of the four champagnes we had tonight. There's a slight mushroomy element, as well as some oxidative tones, and the less-than-ripe vintage gives this a little boost of acidity to balance it out.
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2002 Veuve Clicquot Champagne Brut Vintage 90 Points
France, Champagne
There's a rumour that there was a labelling mistake or somesuch, and a bunch of the Grande Dame ended up in the regular vintage bottling. I don't know if it's true or not, but I can say that this was a pretty tasty bottle of champagne. It shows the ripeness of the vintage, and on the back end of the palate, there's a sweet almond note. The fruit is slightly creamy and there's also a slight bit of sweetness on the palate -- perhaps it's just a hair overdosed? Plenty of acid and a fairly vigorous mousse help to cut through those riper elements.
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2004 Guffens-Heynen Pouilly-Fuissé La Roche 93 Points
France, Burgundy, Mâconnais, Pouilly-Fuissé
My last bottle of this was tragically corked, and all the more tragic because of how good this wine is. It's white Burgundy made in a super old school way -- not reductive at all, but instead fat and rich and with so much raw power. The chardonnay acidity is here, but it's not the driving force behind this wine (nor is the reduction). Despite the fatness, this wine never seems ungainly or over the top. The fruit is ripe and pretty sweet, but this manages to stay very nicely balanced.
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2015 Willi Schaefer Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 93 Points
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
#17-16, 7.5% abv. I freely admit that now is not the best time to open a bottle of this, but I had a hankering for some sweeter riesling and this was pretty much the only bottle on hand. In any case, the nose shows a little herbal tone, as well as a nascent cheesy funk (ah, yes, classic Sonnenuhr). The super primary elements have now started to dissipate, which exposes a pretty serious scaffold of structure (both acid and extract). This has lost its youthful exuberance and we can only wait until this starts to develop secondary characteristics.
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