annerk
Posts: 240
Joined: 10/16/2008
From: Central Florida
Status: online
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Finally I have returned! I apologize for the delay, but between work and four young children and their ovewhelmed parents descending on my normally very quiet home for a week, it's been hectic to say the least.
The tasting was of Nicolas Feuillatte Champagnes. We tasted six varieties.
The first was a pale gold NV Brut "Blue Label" that was dripping with honey and even hints of coconut on the nose, with lots of grapefruit in the mouth and a lingering finish of citrus and a bit of sweet nut. It was pretty generic although did have some complexity--a cross between a light and medium body.
The 100% Chardonnay Brut Extrem' NV was next. It had an earthy, nutty nose. It was slightly buttery in the mouth and ended with not quite ripe peach. This Champagne had no added sugar and was arid to say the least. It needed a food pairing, maybe oysters or Camembert to bring out the complexity.
We moved on to a 1999 Blanc de Blanc Brut. This was also 100% Chardonnay, and was very light and crisp. Tons of effervescence! The nose was pear and white floral. It was very light and bright in the mouth with more pear and some citrus, and a bit of green apple on the finish. It was complex and hands down my favorite that day. It easily stood on it's own without food, yet would have paired well with quite a few things.
The next offering was an NV Brut Rose. It was floral and raspberry on the nose (others thought strawberry, but I'm standing by the raspberry) and bursting with strawberry, raspberry, red currant, and tangerine on the pallette. The finish was very short. This would have been terrific with salmon or sweet and sour chicken. Alone it fell flat.
We moved on to their "gourmet" Champagnes.
The 1999 Cuvee 225 had a straw color and nutty nose. It was medium bodied and oaked--almost too heavily oaked. It was 50% pinot noir and 50% chardonnay. My tasting notes say "wood" as far as the mouth, although I also recall an earthy, buttery pear. I noted that I would have liked this as a still wine with chicken or fish, but didn't care for it as a Champagne.
The final variety we tried was 1997 Palmes d'Or. It was yeasty on the nose with apricot and tangerine hovering over a buttery texture in the mouth. The finish was a cacophony. Complex is one thing, this was a mouthful of mayhem. Trying too hard comes to mind. And the fancy bottle doesn't fool me, it's not worth the $100+ price tag in my opinion.
Overall I felt that their price points were too high for the overall quality of the wines, and there was a lot of ado about what were generally speaking pretty generic Champagnes. The Blanc de Blanc is the only one I plan on adding to my cellar, mostly because it does fine on it's own without food and it's well priced at about $40 a bottle.
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