My House In The South OC
Tasted Saturday, December 15, 2018 by Frank Murray III with 388 views
The group all pitched in and we pooled the funds to buy all of these wines. The sources were these were from my cellar, as well as Paul's and Rob's. HDH in Chicago, Sec Wines in Portland and Envoyer here in the OC were our retail sources for the rest of the lineup. We also had Basanti (Indian in San Juan Capistrano) cater in the food, which we had during the Champagne flight). The reds we opened after the food was done and people were mixing and retasting the bubblies, too.
All wines tasted last night, with edits to my TNs for those wines I was able to retaste the following AM using the bottle leftovers which I kept closed and in the fridge.
All reds were retasted the following AM after the event. My notes reflect that aeration.
NV Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Shaman 13
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Disgorged 01/17. Zero dosage. 76% PN / 24% Chard. Cool green apple, touch of honey and flint.
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NV Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Shaman 13 Rosé
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Disgorged 01/17. Zero dosage. 71% Chard / 29% PN. Lots of red fruit, which may sound odd, as the base is mostly Chard (and oddly enough too, the 13 Shaman, which is mostly PN, showed green apple notes to me when we tasted it right next to this Shaman Rose). This shows a really fruit driven, with lots of strawberry forming the core of the palate for me....retasted this morning from the leftover bottle. Creamy red fruit, along with some fresh cut green apple, pear. Some nice saline in the finish and a light biscuity note.
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2012 Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Avize & Cramant Extra Brut
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Disgorged 09/17, with zero dosage and 100% Chardonnay. FWIW, in my other TN from earlier in the year when I was at the winery, the disgorgement date was 02/18. The bottle last night did not seem as structured as that one, showing golden apple, bread dough, lime skin and tangerine. This took some air to wake up for me, too.
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2013 Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Chouilly
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Disgorged 03/18, which is pretty recent I suppose. 100% Chard, zero dosage. Solid notes of citrus, and the same tangerine note as the Avize/Cramant, but more focused in the Chouilly for me. Lime and mineral close the finish.
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2012 Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Les Crayères
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Disgorged 09/17. 70% PN / 30% Chard, zero dosage. Lots of lemon-lime in this bottle tonight, with grapefruit in the background. Finishes with a salty/mineral note. This was not the best of the single plots for me tonight, and I have consistently liked Crayeres before. Have several left in the cellar, will try another soon.
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2012 Marguet Champagne Grand Cru La Grande Ruelle
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Disgorged 05/17. 100% PN, zero dosage. This was the best Marguet of the night for me, and reaffirmed why this is on my WOTY list for 2018. The length, fruit depth and balance of this wine is really superb. Deep flavors of black cherry with a lovely saline finish of red fruits and citrus. Excellent showing again tonight.
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2012 Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Ambonnay Rosé
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Disgorged 06/17. 57% Chard / 43% PN, zero dosage and FWIW, sans soufre (which the Marguet labels do list the sulfur addition). Minty and yeasty nose. Tangy strawberry, lime, with terrific acidity and energy. This wine really showed well tonight, and at lighter price than the single vineyards, it certainly stood in to challenge the Crayeres and Bermonts tonight, too.
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2012 Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Les Bermonts
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Disgorged 09/17. 100% Chard, zero dosage. This is stony, with golden apple, light grapefruit and what I told the group reminded me of mango. I got a few raised eyebrows and some comments as to that remark, but I stand by it. When I taste wine, I let the sensory attach an image/word and mango was what popped into my head. I own some more of this wine and want to isolate this bottle next time and see what I find....retasted this morning from leftover bottle. The CO2 is gone as I didn't close it very well, leaving it still. A brisk lemony core, polished and in balance. As a still wine now, it drinks like a well-built Chard with integrated acidity.
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2013 Marie Courtin Champagne Efflorescence Extra Brut
France, Champagne
Disgorged 05/18, 100% PN, zero dosage. This comes from the bottom section of the 6 acre slope, and it tastes different than the Resonance, which is the upper slope. Raspberry, lime skin, stone fruit and good structure with a clean, minerally finish. This showed terrific.
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2015 Marie Courtin Champagne Presence
France, Champagne
Disgorged 05/18. 70% Chard / 30% Pinot Blanc, zero dosage. There isn't much Chard grown on the M-C slope, and even less Pinot Blanc but Dominique makes a little of this wine, which from what I can tell is the first vintage to produce it. This was the most newly disgorged of all the wines last night, and of note too is that there isn't any of this wine in CT inventory yet. I got lucky finding some in the US and plan to go back and see if the shop has any left, as I will take it all. This wine for me was thrilling. Fleshy, lightly smoky, showing peach and nectarine (thank you Paul for that descriptor, as it was spot-on), along with melon. A few others last night too seemed to like this bottling a lot. Lovely stuff.
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2014 Marie Courtin Champagne Eloquence Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut
France, Champagne
Disgorged 04/18, 100% Chard, zero dosage. This is the first TN in CT on this wine. This came off a little sweet for me, according to my notes. Smoky aromatic, granny smith apple, lime, tangy and lightly stony. MY thought is that I didn't get my head around this when well enough, especially so as it was one of the final champagnes I tasted (of about 20). I have several bottles of it, as I went long on getting more prior to the event, given it is Chard from what is mainly a PN producer. Will open another soon and isolate it so I can get a better impression...retasted this morning from leftover bottle. Bright and lively, and it really complements the breakfast flavors we are doing very well, allowing the acidity to pop. Gentle pippin apple, with a good imprint of bright citrus. Glad I have several of these now for the cellar as this is a good drink. Also, the premise of retasting, with a different context (last night vs this morning) reinforces the importance of setting for tasting notes.
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2014 Marie Courtin Champagne Concordance Extra Brut
France, Champagne
Disgorged 04/18, 100% PN, zero dosage. The fruit for this bottling comes from the oldest vines on the hill, and is also bottled sans soufre. My notes from last night say 'a wine that makes me think'. This is an indication to me that I had to really work to get this wine. My notes have the word 'cranberry?', apple, minerals, tangy, crisp and rocky. This is also the most expensive of the cuvees (alongside the Presence, which is not PN based). I'll be curious to see how I read this wine the next time I open one, to see if the distinctiveness is there again, and if I can sort it out better....retasting from the bottle leftover from last night. I closed the bottle of really well, as the CO2 is still quite present. Being able to taste this again this AM, in a different setting over breakfast, really made a difference. I can now get the wine into focus. The color of this is light gold, and the flavors belie the color which for me show an oxidative quality. Bruised apple, savory with some raspberry/red fruit. My hunch is that the sans soufre approach to this is making its impact, as this is distinctly different in tone and taste than the rest of the M-C range. I'll plan to send Dominique a note and ask her if my experience here is consistent with the Concordance bottling, and if this was the style she was going after.
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2014 Marie Courtin Champagne Resonance Extra Brut
France, Champagne
Disgorged 02/18. 100% PN, zero dosage. This is the top of the slope, where as Efflorescence is the bottom portion and they taste very different to me. The Resonance showed for me a lot of structure and grip, leaner too. The tannins were almost grainy in tone for me. Very stony (my notes have this underlined) with raspberry fruit. Probably the most structured wine for me of the entire day, across both Marie Courtin and Marguet. Very good but will need air and or time... retasting now this morning from last night's leftover wine. Red berry with some earthiness showing, including a light loamy note in the aromatic. Even now with being open overnight (and much of the CO2 is gone), the wine remains stony, a slatey imprint which I really like. For being the cheapest wine in the M C range, this is very good for the price.
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NV Piollot Champagne Champs Rayés Brut Nature
France, Champagne
Disgorged 02/17, 100% Chard and zero dosage. Nutty and round in tone, with some citrus. It stuck out in the tasting as it doesn't have the intensity and complexity of the M-C wines.
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2013 Savart Champagne Premier Cru Le Mont Benoit
France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Disgorged 10/17, 100% Chard, 3 g/l dosage. Distinctly floral. I was so enamored with the aromatics on this bottle that I failed to write any other TNs. This bottle disappeared quickly, too.
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2013 Savart Champagne Extra Brut L'Année
France, Champagne
Disgorged 10/17. 40% Chard / 60% PN, 3 g/l. This to me showed tight and grippy with apple and mineral, honey and what I call lime chew, a soft citrusy candy flavor. I didn't get this enough attention so my TN falls a bit short.
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2012 Savart Champagne Expression Nature Flawed
France, Champagne
Damn it. I have this on my short list for WOTY so I pull this bottle on the fly during our champagne event to share with everyone and it's frigging corked. Adding to the pain is that I just paid a premium to source this very bottle, well above the release price when these first came out. AGGH!
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2012 Savart Champagne Premier Cru La Dame de Coeur
France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Disgorged 06/16, 100% Chard, 2 g/l. As with the Savart Expression that I pulled spur of the moment, so too this Dame. The Expression was corked (AGH!) yet this Dame was fine. Regrettably for my TNs, there isn't one and the crew polished it off so we'll have to go with that the Dame was well-received.
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