Single blind tasting of 12 champagnes and sparkling wines
Tasted June 20, 2014 by EirikM with 792 views
Introduction
The tasting was single blind and the wines were only revealed after the final flight.
Flight 1 - Ca' del Bosco vs. Ayala (4 notes)
A clear win to Ca`del Bosco over Ayala in both the zero dosage and basic cuvee duels. The basic cuvée from Italy showed particularly well, but the overall level of the flight was quite ordinary
Flight 2 - Three BdBs and an old friend (4 notes)
Not very difficult to identify the Bollinger, but the three BdBs were so different in style that I didn`t realise that they were BdBs. On quality, both the Ca' del Bosco and the Gusbourne challenged the Bollinger. The Ayala seemd surpringsly tired, but might have suffered from being compared to the freshness in the other wines.
Flight 3 - One level up (4 notes)
Clearly the strongest flight. Very close race between the Annamaria Clementi and the Grande Année for wine of the night, but I preferred the former for being a bit more developed. The Grande Année is delicious, but not quite on par with the 2002 in my opinion.
Closing
Overall Bollinger showed as well as one would expect and they stand out for delivering Pinot Noir driven champagnes in a quite oxidative style without losing balance or freshness. Ca`del Bosco was impressive throughout their lineup. This wasn`t really a surprise, but nice to see when tasted against the champagnes and English sparklers. The Annamaria Clementi is a gem.
The three Ayalas were quite disappointing and the losers of the tasting. I would take the Franciacortas over these any day. The Gusbournes are potenially very interesting. They stood out both in style (very pure and mineral) and by being a bit less accessible than the other wines. I liked them, but I`d need to revisit them in a year`s time before concluding on how good they really are.