1996 Taittinger "Comtes de Champagne"

"I have seen things that I can’t deny" (Fox Mulder, X-Files)

I have tasted this Champagne at least 10 times before and I have always been thrilled with it. But it has been at least two years since I have touched it and since then a lot of water has floated into the river of Champagne experiences.

For that reason, I was really looking forward to taste it, as I saw it as an opportunity for taking a current “temperature”, on how I would feel about a very traditional and highly respected Cuvée Prestige.

It’s a pretty bottle and that’s probably the best thing I can say about it. The nose is out of the scale toasted, with dull smoke and trying-to-seduce-me-vanilla flavours – only making it flabby and loose nerve. It’s filled with sulphur notes and combined with the toasted aromas it’s without a doubt (in tough competition with 1996 Dom Perignon) one of the most impure Champagne I have tasted in the last two years. It should be noted, that I am confident it’s sulphur, but in the case of Dom Perignon, some have suggested it’s the result of winemaking without oxygen. If anyone out there could clarify this, I would be interested, because it’s aromas, which are very annoying to me.

For sure it has some flowery and citrus flavours, which could have made a difference, but they are so covered in this sulphur hell, that they never come to life. On the tongue the wine is dead – no energy, no life, no acidity smack, no soil expression – just awful. It’s the first Champagne in a while, where I was not able to finish the bottle – half of it went in the fridge for day 2, where it hadn’t improved at all.

So how can I be ecstatic over a bottle of Champagne and two years later, literally hate it? Can if be phase for the wine? I doubt it. I think it’s me. The fact that I in the last two years have tasted more Champagne than I have in the last 10 years – and most importantly, falling in love with very pure Champagnes. I know where this is going. It’s the same old trivia about little man grower and big house evil Grande Margues. Why has it to be like that – why can’t it just be the pursuit of the taste of good?? I think it’s a little more complicated than that – also because the paradoxes are obvious there and Champagne – like no other region – has this unique and odd setup.

I hope you, as a reader know that I have no agenda other than use this innocent blog as my personal diary and share wine experiences. But admitted – I am sometimes puzzled by Champagnes paradoxes and don’t really get the idea of Champagne as a brand and not a wine with a birthmark from Mother Nature.

This dilemma will keep haunting me. I have a fair stash of Grande Margues in my cellar – I hope the deliver better than this one.

Glasses – several used as I hope one of them would make it shine. The Zalto kept the sulphur notes more calved, where it in the Adina glass, the sulphur notes was like a hurricane.

Terres et Vins de Champagne 2010

(Aurélien Laherte)

Last year Raphaël Bérèche and his friend Aurélien Laherte decided to put on a little tasting event @ Goutorbe's beautiful Castel Jeanson Hotel in Aÿ – named Terre et Vins de Champagne. The tasting was a huge success, demonstrating how much attention and curiosity some of the new frontiers on the Champagne scene are causing. Unfortunately I didn’t know about this tasting last year and only discovered it’s existent when I read about it on Peter Liems blog. Luckily this wasn’t a one off event and I am confident that Terre et Vins will be a recurring, not to miss, champagne event for all farmer fizz lovers.

Still the 2010 event will be remembered (hopefully) as a very odd Terre et vins de Champagne year. I am of course speaking about the eruption of the Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajökull, which caused air traffic across Europe to stop and cause complete chaos. Most of those attending from Asia and US missed it - even Peter Liem missed it - what a shame. My own situation didn’t look good either. I was supposed to fly to Paris – meet up with some friends for lunch and head by train to Epernay and attending the event early Monday morning. But no – my flight was already cancelled on the Saturday before my departure. I had already set my mind on staying home and my Plan B basically came down to rinsing my sorrows with a great bottle of Champagne. But luck came my way in the very last minutes. My best friend, Claus and I- had some weeks before the event talk about what a shame it was, that he couldn’t come to Champagne with me, as he was expecting some guest from US. But the flights from New York to Copenhagen was of course also cancelled, so he called me and so we made a quick decision and started the car.

So early Monday morning the 19^th of April, I had my first glass of Champagne in my hand. Why can’t all Mondays be like that?

Click here to see which producers participated.

Each producer had brought about three 2009 vins clairs samples and in most cases the matching Champagnes from the current release. It’s of course really interesting to taste so many vins clairs for comparison and getting an idea about the 2009 vintage. But it takes enormous concentration and it’s hard when you just stand up and also want to make conversation with the some of the very friendly producers. I started writing notes, but simply stopped shortly after and just tried to use my senses.

Here are some of my personal highlights. Forgive if I have forgotten some – they where really not any bad Champagnes present.

It’s always difficult to present a vintage, which comes next to a highly acclaimed year. Already in my visit to Champagne last year, I saw how ecstatic the producers where towards the 2008 vintage. 2009 is not at the same level – so it seems at this early stage, but early days still suggest 2009 as being a solid good year.

(David Léclpart)

Aurélien Laherte served the latest release of Les Clos, which you may remember is a blend between the 7 Champagne grape varietals. It’s also a Solera Champagne, with has its starting point in 2005. The newest release is even better than the first – more layers and again incredible fresh. I love the fact the grapes from Le Clos are harvest at the same time, giving some of them this high pitched grape notes and one hell of an acidity smack. Freshness is the key for Laherte and his splendid Brut Nature is a great QPR for all purist hunters.

David Léclapart poured his astonishing 2006 Amateur (see my review here), which to me was better than 2005 Artiste and 2005 Apôtre. The 2005’s feels like they do not possess the same bright energy of the 2006 vintage. It might just be a matter of cellaring. David’s 2009 Vins clair are like floating black mineral nerve – it takes a lot of focus and experience to judge these wines.

(Pascal Agrapart)

That was actually also the case with Pascal Agrapart’s vins clairs, but still more chalk driven samples and not particular friendly and flowery perfumed as some of the other vins clairs. But tasting Pascal’s 2004 Champagnes makes you realize what such juice can be transformed into. All his 2004’s (Mineral, Avizoise and Venus) are brilliant. Especially 2004 “Venus”, which I have already tasted a couple of times before, is magical.

From Agrapart I walked over to Raphaël Bérèche, which style is completely different. Already at Vins Clairs level do you have wines with more vivid fruit sensations, such as lush peach scents. But both his vins clairs and Champagnes seems bound for an even more slim, elastic and elegant style. Raphaël poured his not yet released 2004 Vintage (Non-dosage), which made me smile a lot. It’s ones of those Champagnes which holds vivid ripe fruit, making them seem sweet, but it’s really an extremely seductive Champagne - yet fragile and very mouth coating on the palate. I think we are talking September before it will be released. I can’t wait to taste it again.

(Raphaël Bérèche)

(Benoît Tarlant)

The diversity of Champagne is highlighted at such an event – just take a producer like, Tarlant – which sent their top man to the event; Benoît Tarlant ;-). Benoît presented some of the most concentrated Champagne at the event. He presented a newly disgorged version of 2000 “Vigne d’Antan”, which was more broad shouldered than the first release. He also brought a fresh disgorged 2002 “Vigne d’or”, which was once again a volcano (a good one) of dark Pinot Meunier fruit, with quince and honey notes. It will need another 6-12 months to settle down I think and it’s being released shortly. I will have more “Tarlant” for you, as I visited Benoît the next day.

What else?

(Champagne makes you smile)

Alexandre Chartogne is a name to look out for. His wines are not available in Denmark yet, but he makes fantastic feminine wines. I will hopefully taste his “2002 Fiacre” in near future, so I can get more acquainted with his style. Françoise Bedel and her son Vincent Desaubeau was also present. Their wines are really dense with a significant trademark of biodynamic winemaking. They have made an fantastic accomplishment with their “Dis, Vins Secret” in the difficult vintage 2003.

One should not forget Benoít Lahaye either, which makes really fresh and drinking friendly Champagnes at bargain prices.

(We where nursed with fresh Parma ham and cheeses all day)

So it ended here one should have thought. But as I stayed at Hotel Castel Jeanson, where the event was held, why not join the wine makers in a small after party, where I got the chance to taste almost all of the Champagnes again. It was suggested to me, that I should have taken some pictures from this very cosy and joyful get-together, but some moments are just better enjoyed while you are there and shouldn’t always be captured on “film”. The only thing I can “illustrate” for you is that a Champagne cork can actually fly around 50 meters, if you give it a decent push – just ask Benoît Tarlant ;-).

A special thanks to Aurélien, Raphaël and Benoît for your generous hospitality – see you next year.

NV Tarlant "Rosé Zero"

( Shot with aperture f/1.2 - causing a lot of out of focus blur)

The datasheet for this wine can be found on Tarlant’s homepage – click here

Glass: Zalto and Spiegelau Adina – both great.

Most wine lowers peruse to taste perfection and when they come close and even have a glint of perfection, some claim they will hunt that experience/taste/smell over and over again, as it where a drug.

I am no different –and yet, while polishing my halo, I have increasingly embraced the simplicity of a glass of wine – and in this case a glass of Champagne. Today I want wine and in particular Champagne, to be a natural rhythm of my life. Even if I had the financial freedom to buy the worlds most sought after wines, I would still drink, what I refer to “simple” wines, as they fall more natural into my needs and bring balance to the perception and evaluation of wine.

Why all this mumbling? Well – It’s easy to define great, when you can label a wine with multi layered complexity adjectives. But “simple” can also have it’s own beauty – even if the word in this context, always makes you think of something not great.

You have probably guessed it by now and I have already written half of the TN with this intro. This rosé is simple. Filled with fragrant red raspberry/strawberry and apricot notes. It has a great appealing and clean vivid fruit load. Taste is mild, simple and refreshing with a gentle spicy touch on the finish line. At no point did you realize it was a non-dosage.

It simply makes me happy to taste Champagnes like this.

1999 Vilmart "Coeur de Cuvée", Champagne

80% Chardonnay

20% Pinot Noir

I haven’t touched this wine since Jan-2008, where I recommended 5 years of cellaring. But this is typical me – or maybe you suffer from the same curious fever, where you always end up drinking your wines too early, as you simply can’t keep your hands off?

Anyway, I was in for a surprise and a good one. From being a flowery and citrus shell back in early-2008, it has obtained a lot of oxidation signs and as always in the case of Couer de Cuvée some of this openness comes from delightful, appetizing and seductive oak perfumes. Hand in hand with notes of spice box, chocolate flavours and the sensual oak perfumes, it offers a spectacular mouth coating effect. Notes of honey, quince, vanilla and evening perfume is a part of the aromas escaping from the glass. On the palate it again has a lot of creaminess, but it’s fairly low in acidity. Where you can still fell the young side of this Champagne is the structure, which despite its creaminess offers dynamite concentration. You can discuss whether this Champagne is a bit too oak infected. You can also argue, whether the low acidity and the lack of mineral bite back is a minus. To some degree it’s problematic as the drinking experience can end up being a bit monotone, as barrel perfumes seldom holds enough complexity without an elegant partner – nor won’t the taste buds be “cleaned” properly by the lack of bright acidity. At least, that’s the standard answer – but I had the whole bottle to myself (home alone) and I was happy all the way. It’s one of these Champagnes where you simply just are in the mood of relaxing and this Champagne did it to perfection.

I believe the drinking window has started for this Champagne. The fruit and concentration is in solid condition and offers many layers. But, as the acidity is low and the oxidation has already occurred, I can’t see a reason why one shouldn’t just jump in now?

I tested it in 4 different glasses. The result was very different. This note is more or less based on Adina Red wine, which also takes the Champagne into a even more evolved stage, than in comparison with a glass like Zalto.

2004 David Léclapart "L'Artiste", Champagne

100% Chardonnay

Biodynamic made

Aged in half old barriques and half enameled steel tanks.

Vines roughly 37 years of age

Glass: Spiegelau Adina “Red wine”

I recently heard a whisper, from a very reliable source, that 2004 Artiste was not closed anymore. Such information is not to be ignored, as – after tasting the 1999 Vintage some years ago, I started to speculate whether I had to wait a decade before the extremely tight a mineral infected 2004 Artiste would ever come around.

Let me start by confirming that the Champagne has indeed changed and is now to be considered approachable. Whether it stays like this and brings Artiste further and further down its evolution path, I couldn’t say for sure? I would not be a surprised if the flower contracts a few times more, as it almost seems like the destiny, for the very authentic wines of David Léclapart.

When I say approachable – don’t think of Champagne with oxidations patterns, nutty and dark bread flavours starting to come forward – NO, it’s nothing like that. It’s more like a frozen snowball filled with sensational level of minerals, starting to melt. I have often described Artiste’s little brother; Amateur like frozen Evian – and if to stay on the same analogy frequency, Artiste is like a frozen iceberg. The purity is on scale of it’s own and it plays with so high level of energy that ever sniff is like being brought back to life. The fruit has always been filled with greenish apple notes, but here you see the transformation, as the apples are now juicier and even have started to have secondary nuances of peach and pear. On the palate it’s fascinating how the aftertaste is not something you chew on, but particles of crystallized minerals slowly breaking apart. In all essence it makes it incredible sleek and elegant.

If you are the owner of ’04 “L’Artiste” I suggest you open a bottle now, if it turns out to be just a window. You shouldn’t miss such an opportunity.

Beautiful, pure and artistic Champagne – simply just “Artiste”

NOMA Update - Worlds best restaurant

Noma has just been voted Number 1 (The World’s 50 Best Restaurant)

It’s insane.

You can argue whether such a list can have a valid say and I have never personally been in favour of top this and that. Sort of naming the world’s best wine.

But I can assure you, that for Denmark, Nordic food and especially the Noma crew it means the world. It’s a giant step in unfolding the Nordic food chest and telling a story which has just begun.

One thing is for certain – it will be impossible to get a table there now. I will visit again 19th of June – what about you?

Champagne is required now – CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

NOMA

I wish I could have presented you with photos of Noma fine cuisine – however it’s not possible for me to take images during a business dinner. Trines Very Good Food has some brilliant images of the food – otherwise go to the website. All the images here, are shot just before lunch service on a beautiful spring day in April.

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote my first ever concerned review about restaurant Noma. Since then I have given it a lot of thought - if it was just a bump on the road or was it maybe just me, not understanding that type of food anymore?? A visit to Noma is a full blown sense bombardment, but it's also storytelling and last time I seemed lost in understanding the story.

Noma is Nordic food. So dogmatic rules has been engaged since the opening and only Nordic ingredients are allowed. When Noma started, everyone thought such a concept was insane and a limitation, but as Noma gradually opened the treasure chest of the Nordic food landscape, gained knowledge - it turned out to be a gift. Noma slowly claimed one success after another and is currently considered No.3 Restaurant in the world, by the Restaurant Magazine (50 best).

I have always admired Noma courage by embracing such a risky concept. Nordic and Denmark may sound as the easiest plan in the world, but as you can read in the Noma cookbook, Noma was facing financial disaster shortly after the opening, as the supply lines of the Nordic kitchen was not something that was just out there. It's easier to buy asparagus from Thailand than buying a pristine scallop from Norway. So everything was small steps on unfamiliar territory and a journey in understanding what the Nordic seasons has to offer and how they can be turned into a successful plate of food.

Chef René Redzepi has been there from the start and it seem like Noma is he brainchild where he has been able to, not only define the restaurants profile, but also be the leading voice of Nordic cuisine. Noma has been, and I believe still are, a strong inspirational source for many of the restaurants here in Denmark and around the world.

So...

....On the 12th of March I sat down again, with some clients from Paris - almost tense about getting on with the dinner. First thing which caught my attention, was the calmed and personal service. Now, the last visit I noticed too many waiters and too many chef's presenting our food and then rushing away to the next table or back to the kitchen. This time it was calm, personal and even our guest from Paris noticed this informal service, which simply makes you feel welcome. For me it's vital that you immediately feel welcome and simply just relax. It's something which is natural for Noma as the atmosphere of the rustic room almost invites you in. I also have to make kudos to waiter/sommelier; Ulf, who served our table and handled the wine as it where small treasures. So far - so good.

But the best was yet to come.

We started with the appetizers. Maybe because it's been a while since I have been to Noma without my wife, I haven't noticed you now are sharing the appetizers. It's a good thing, it makes you talk about the food and pay attention, as you sometimes can get lost in conversation and sipping Champagne. All appetizers were tasty and well composed in their serving order and tickle the taste buds as appetizers should do. But also here my guest and I got the first laughs of picking up and eating food with our fingers and also being presented with wicked and creative presentations.

The dinner blew my mind. I would go as far as calling it artistic. Food which you have no idea how to create yourself and which are so exquisite and seamless combined, that you actually feels like you are witnessing something truly special. I was actually proud to be sort of a Danish Ambassador to my foreign guest. They had never tried anything like it.

I can't go into all the details about the food as I tried to relax as much as possible.

But here are some highlights.

The langoustine dish was out of this world good - Goosebumps all over me and it didn't make it any worse that we had the 1996 Jacques Selosse with that dish. The Champagne is still young, but slowly starting to show some glow of walnuts and quince. However the acidity snaps everything together and makes the focus unique and razor sharp. What a Champagne.

The pike dish was also brilliant - incredible flavours mixed together. Also remember the first dish, with variations of beetroot. Incredible, how such a dish is composed in rich flavours and yet so subtle at the same time. This is in general a red line for Noma and to me their strongest card.

The dish, which I hated the most, last time I visited Noma was pickled vegetables and bone marrow, herbs and bouillon. This dish was also served this night, but it had been altered slightly. The difference was the bouillon. Last time it was poured as a soup over the vegetables and taking complete control and ruining the dish, as the soup was so fat and sweet. This time it was sprinkle more gently and magic appeared. The bouillon holding a lot of sweet components and when touching the vegetables, their flavours exploded. On top of the dish (think it was also altered from last time), there was some herbs with an acidic touch (maybe it was wood sorrel). Magic - pure magic.

(Sommerlier Pontus Elofsson)

Ahhh...wine...I studied the wine list before we arrived (but of course) and I had an idea that we could do the wine menu and use a few stand-ins' - like the previously mentioned, 1996 Selosse Vintage. The other wine I had set my eyes on was the 2001 Comte de Vogue Chambolle Musigny "les Amoureuses". It was a beautiful wine, not as ballerina light and perfumed "red" like other Amoureuses, but with more rough intensity and devilish bite. Even if a bit rustic and young, it was killer nice and matched the food perfectly.

Planning is one thing - spontaneously joy is another thing - so we actually got a little thirstier. I saw the extremely rare 2004 Cedric Bouchard "Rosé de Saigness Creux D'Enfer" on the wine list and simply could resist. It didn't match the food though, but it still offered a unique rosé charm, with its sleek, spicy and bone dry style.

While I washed my hands at the men's room, I realized upon return to the table, that my guest thought we needed a new bottle of Champagne. Oh well - this late only Substance from Selosse (deg. 10/07) could work, so we went for it. Great stuff, even if it's not my favourite Champagne, it provided so much full throttle and hedonist pleasure and it was the perfect way to end this evening.

Well Noma - I think we can safely conclude that I was a very pleased costumer when I left the restaurant.