Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Monday, January 12, 2015 - 100% Chardonnay from Grand Cru vineyards in Côte de Blancs. 95% of the wine is fermented and aged for 4 months in stainless steel, 5% in small oak barrels (1/3 new) before the wine is blended in together and bottled. Aged for close to 10 years before disgorging. 12,5% alcohol, 6,4 g/l acidity, dosage 11 g/l.

Rather pale and delicate lime-greenish color. Surprisingly restrained and closed nose, showing initially very little of anything else besides smoky reductive notes of gunpowder and flint. Slowly opens up to reveal aromas of very ripe citrus fruits, some autolytic brioche, a little bit of sweet red apple and a hint of developed nutty character. The wine is much more expressive on the palate with quite ripe and somewhat weighty character - probably in part emphasized by the moderately high dosage. There are expansive flavors of autolytic toasted bread, very ripe citrus fruits, some steely minerality, a little bit of nutty and slightly spicy complexity, a sweeter hint of orange marmalade and even a slightly candied touch of peach. The wine is high in acidity with very soft, gentle and creamy mousse showing good persistence. The finish is long, firm and very acid-driven with pronounced, tangy citrus notes of tart lemons and stony minerality along with sweeter tones of orange marmalade and peach candies, which fade away making room for more developed notes of nutty autolysis and bruised apples.

An impressive, complex and harmonious prestige cuvée, but also surprisingly ripe, even somewhat sweet and candied in style. Usually wines like these are dead-serious and bone-dry in style, so this marmaladey sweetness lends a hedonistic, but also somewhat less-serious crowdpleaser note to the wine. Nevertheless, this is a delicious, harmonious and remarkably structured wine with great finesse and sense of pedigree. Perhaps the sweetness was just something I really did not expect or then it's just the warm and very ripe vintage doing its own tricks here. Great stuff, but I have a hunch this vintage really can't hold a candle to the cooler surrounding vintages. Rather pricey at 131,20€, but aren't prestige cuvées all?

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