Community Tasting Notes (241) Avg Score: 91.4 points

  1. Newest
Note Display Settings

View all 241 Community Tasting Notes

What Do You Think? Add a Tasting Note

Pro Reviews

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.

View From the Cellar

JamesSuckling.com

View From the Cellar

Vinous

  • By Antonio Galloni
    Champagne: The 2018 Summer Preview (Jul 2018), 7/1/2018, (See more on Vinous...)

    (NV Tarlant Brut Nature Cuvée Louis (base 2000) Sparkling White) Login and sign up and see review text.

JamesSuckling.com

Vinous

  • By Antonio Galloni
    Champagne: The 2017 Summer Preview (Jul 2017), 7/1/2017, (See more on Vinous...)

    (NV Tarlant Brut Nature Cuvée Louis Sparkling White) Login and sign up and see review text.

View From the Cellar

JamesSuckling.com

View From the Cellar

Vinous

  • By Antonio Galloni
    Champagne: The 2016 Summer Preview (Aug 2016), 8/1/2016, (See more on Vinous...)

    (NV Tarlant Brut Nature Cuvée Louis) Login and sign up and see review text.

  • By Antonio Galloni
    Champagne’s Golden Age (Nov 2015), 11/1/2015, (See more on Vinous...)

    (NV Tarlant Brut Nature Cuvée Louis) Login and sign up and see review text.

View From the Cellar

Vinous

  • By Antonio Galloni
    Champagne: New Releases and Collectibles (May 2014), (See more on Vinous...)

    (NV Tarlant Cuvée Louis) Login and sign up and see review text.

Champagne Warrior

Vinous

  • By Antonio Galloni
    New Releases from Champagne (Dec 2011), (See more on Vinous...)

    (NV Tarlant Cuvee Louis) Login and sign up and see review text.

  • By Antonio Galloni
    New Releases from Champagne (Dec 2010), (See more on Vinous...)

    (NV Tarlant Cuvee Louis) Login and sign up and see review text.

Champagne Warrior

Vinous

  • By Josh Raynolds
    November/December 2006, IWC Issue #129, (See more on Vinous...)

    (NV Tarlant Cuvee Louis Brut) Login and sign up and see review text.

ChampagneGuide.net

RJonWine.com

  • By Richard Jennings
    5/14/2015, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 93 points

    (NV Tarlant Champagne Cuvée Louis) Light medium golden color; oxidative, hazelnut, dried lemon nose; rich, oxidative, baked lemon, dried lemon, mineral palate with medium acidity; medium-plus finish 93+ points

  • By Richard Jennings
    4/4/2010, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 91 points

    (NV Tarlant Champagne Cuvée Louis) Light yellow color; lovely, lime, chalk, kumquat nose; tasty, very tart, chalk, lime, kumquat, citrus palate; medium-plus finish 91+ pts. (50% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay; from '97 and '96 vintages)

  • By Richard Jennings
    10/18/2009, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 92 points

    (NV Tarlant Champagne Cuvée Louis) Light yellow color; autolytic, pear, poached pear, cream nose; tangy, tart pear, poached pear, baked apple, mineral palate; medium-plus finish

Garagiste

  • By Jon Rimmerman
    8/14/2009, (See more on Garagiste...)

    (NV TARLANT Cuvee Louis (NV/96/97/98)) Champagne Dear Friends, If you pin down some of Champagne's most admired winemakers and ask them who is making the best wine in the region, more often than not Benoit Tarlant's name will arise. For me, there has been no house as resurgent as Tarlant and they owe much of it to the youthful, renegade outlook of a vintner blessed with incredible raw material to work with. Certainly Benoit was fortunate to be born into a family with over 300 years of heritage in Champagne but he is also fortunate that his great grandfather purchased (one by one) parcels of land that should now be considered one of the 5-6 greatest collections of terroir in all of Champagne. Grand Cru? Tarlant has terroir above that designation. All of this is well and good but you need to know what to do with the material you've inherited and Benoit has taken the bull by the horns. As a member of the same influential group of organic vintners as Tire Pe in Bordeaux, Tarlant is set to once again take their place next to Krug (or Selosse as Benoit would tell you) as one of the top producers in all of Champagne but they are doing it in a different manner: with natural methodology that would make the Loire's most underground hipsters jealous. Not only is Tarlant doing things right from a farming standpoint but they have the La Tache-like terroir to exploit as well. This cuvee, produced as a non-vintage (like all of their top wines), is part of a series Benoit calls "revelations of terroir" - wines that speak so directly to one site, they deserve to be bottled from a single plot (as discussed with Marie-Courtin earlier in the week, this is not the norm in Champagne). The Cuvee Louis is from very old vines (over 50-60 years) in Les Crayons with a distinct influence from the Marne River (as opposed to their Vigne d' Antan that is from llot de Sables). From 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay, it is the top blended wine they produce. Contrary to what you may read, no new oak is used in the fermentation of this wine (the vessels are 4-6 years old) and no malolactic is performed. A very light dosage is done by hand so it does not interfere with the wine's delicacy. This breeds a Champagne of exceptional style and nobility that is the perfect marriage of old and new: Please note: Be careful when checking community notes on Champagne - a multitude of disgorgements and vintage mixes are typically in the market at the same time, even more so in Europe (this is not just for Tarlant but for all Champagne in the US market). A preponderance of grey market retail over the last 4-6 years has made this situation more acute. In the past, one importer had the rights to a brand and they stocked the same disgorgement until it was sold through. As a consumer, this made it easier to familiarize your palate with a wine's style - not anymore. There may be 4-6 versions of the same wine in the US market at once - all of them from the same base stock but they were disgorged and sent to importers in Europe (or the legitimate US importer) at a different time - many of those European bottles come back to the US via grey market and are sold (even on the same shelf) next to US imported bottles. This creates havoc for the consumer when trying to assess a wine or rely on a wine's potential performance. Two heads may be better than one but two disgorgements of the same wine sitting side-by-side in your cellar are not (unless, of course that was your intention). To offset this conundrum, more and more Champagne houses are moving to a specific lot number on their bottle to authenticate a wine's provenance and/or disgorgement. Unfortunately, this is more the exception than the rule. For this reason, it is not prudent to print scores or reviews from US publications associated with Champagne unless there is absolute certainty that the wine is the same one tasted. As an example, a cuvee disgorged or tasted in Nov/Dec 2006 is not relevant to a cuvee disgorged in 2008 or 2009. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for one of Champagne's last true moderately priced bargains at the highest end: NV Tarlant "Cuvee Louis" Extra Brut (1996/1997/1998) Oeuilly (RJ90/94) (there has only been one disgorgement of this wine) Thank you, Jon Rimmerman Garagiste Seattle, WA Champ9709

RJonWine.com

  • By Richard Jennings
    1/15/2009, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 92 points

    (NV Tarlant Champagne Cuvée Louis) Herbal nose; tasty, tart stone fruit, peach and grapefruit palate with good acidity (50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir; '96 and '97 vintages)

  • By Richard Jennings
    12/13/2008, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 93 points

    (NV Tarlant Champagne Cuvée Louis) Light medium canary yellow color; focused, lovely, lemon custard, vanilla and ripe lemon nose; great, elegant, but light footed, tart lemon and citrus, mineral, precise, with good acidity and light brioche on mid-palate; long finish

  • By Richard Jennings
    9/17/2007, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 93 points

    (NV Tarlant Champagne Cuvée Louis) Tart apricot, solid, with good acidity, needs time 93+ pts.

  • By Richard Jennings
    9/2/2006, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 92 points

    (NV Tarlant Champagne Cuvée Louis) From magnum - nice, yeasty, warm apricot nose; tasty, rich, bright peach and citrus palate; medium sweet finish (50/50 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, from '96 and '97 vintages)

NOTE: Some content is property of View From the Cellar and JamesSuckling.com and Vinous and Champagne Warrior and ChampagneGuide.net and RJonWine.com and Garagiste.

Add a Pro Review Add Your Own Reviews:
 

Wine Definition

Advertisement

Learn More About This Wine

CellarTracker Articles:

Other Websites:

Report a problem with this page. See my transactions.

×