(René Geoffroy Millésime Extra Brut) ($122.00) 30% PN and 70% Chardonnay, all done in cask, no malo, no cold-stabilizing, no filtration, one fining. I have to say this is the best bone-dry Champagne I’ve tasted; it has a tremendous swell of inside-sweetness; it’s an overall crescendo in fact, of authority and delineation, of solid yet slippery length; very sweet brioche, and San Daniele prosciutto over a silvery gurgle of spring-water freshness. It was equally and differently good with ten grams of RS; you taste the wood more, and it’s a wee bit less fresh overall, but still wonderful. Then going back to zero (which usually puts the hurt on your palate) and zero still works. Now it’s a year later and the wine was bottled with 2 g.l. RS. It’s as profound as a very dry wood-aged Chamnpagne can be; has a feel between great bottles of Tarlant and those late-disgorged Jacquessons; magnificently smoky, mossy, sorrel-y; it tastes like the label looks – platinum on black, without the “coloring” of sweetness. It’s a country gentleman living a life of gravitas and kindness. He doesn’t say he loves you but you know he does. It will be disgorged in April and sold in October. I saw a prototype disgorged 2/10 with 2g rs, and the greatness of the vintage is clear. I pleaded for more rs, not a lot, somewhere between 7 and 10, as befits a grand vintage meant to be laid down. But this is contrary to the zeitgeist, in which the words “Extra Brut” are seen as a marker of Great Seriousness. Whereas what they too often signify is a lost opportunity, taking what might have been actually great Champagne and eviscerating it into something merely admirable and dour.
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By Terry Theise
(René Geoffroy Millésime Extra Brut) ($122.00) 30% PN and 70% Chardonnay, all done in cask, no malo, no cold-stabilizing, no filtration, one fining. I have to say this is the best bone-dry Champagne I’ve tasted; it has a tremendous swell of inside-sweetness; it’s an overall crescendo in fact, of authority and delineation, of solid yet slippery length; very sweet brioche, and San Daniele prosciutto over a silvery gurgle of spring-water freshness. It was equally and differently good with ten grams of RS; you taste the wood more, and it’s a wee bit less fresh overall, but still wonderful. Then going back to zero (which usually puts the hurt on your palate) and zero still works. Now it’s a year later and the wine was bottled with 2 g.l. RS. It’s as profound as a very dry wood-aged Chamnpagne can be; has a feel between great bottles of Tarlant and those late-disgorged Jacquessons; magnificently smoky, mossy, sorrel-y; it tastes like the label looks – platinum on black, without the “coloring” of sweetness. It’s a country gentleman living a life of gravitas and kindness. He doesn’t say he loves you but you know he does. It will be disgorged in April and sold in October. I saw a prototype disgorged 2/10 with 2g rs, and the greatness of the vintage is clear. I pleaded for more rs, not a lot, somewhere between 7 and 10, as befits a grand vintage meant to be laid down. But this is contrary to the zeitgeist, in which the words “Extra Brut” are seen as a marker of Great Seriousness. Whereas what they too often signify is a lost opportunity, taking what might have been actually great Champagne and eviscerating it into something merely admirable and dour.2011 Champagne Catalog, 6/1/2011, (See more on Terry Theise Estate Selections...)