Wine & Spirits - December 2021 - 42

Champagne
grand-cru villages, its nearly raw limestone
power putting the savor of the earth on display.
There's berry fruit at the center of the
wine, surrounded by jasmine notes and brisk,
pithy acidity. The clean finish makes it lovely
to drink now, while the structure bodes well
for aging.
92 | Bollinger
$79
Champagne Special Cuvée Brut ^ A vinous
Champagne, this has pinot-noir depths of
flavor, the structure enhanced by barrel-fermented
reserve wines. Youthfully blunt in
its power, this will benefit from a year in the
cellar, when it can settle into its dry mineral
savor and hazelnut grace.
92 | Bollinger
$110
Champagne Brut Rosé ^While this blend
parallels Special Cuvée, the wine adds graceful
red fruit delicacy with the inclusion of five
percent red wine from Verzenay and Aÿ. The
wine's lovely depth and impressive length
of flavor is ample enough to completely
surround its youthful, muscular structure.
A main-course wine, particularly for crisp
roast duck.
DOm. ALEXANDRE bONNET
Négociant-Manipulant in Les Riceys (Aube);
founded in 1970; owns 116 acres: 90% pinot
noir, 10% others; average 35 years old; oldest
vines: Over 50 years. Cellarmaster: Alain
Pailley; Vigneron: Didier Mélé; 10,500 cases
produced. § Imported by V.O.S. Selections, NY
91 | Alexandre Bonnet
$108
2015 Les Riceys La Forêt Rosé de Saignée ^
The amber hue to this wine's red color portends
the bloody power of this wine, with
black-currant and rose scents over the
saignée scent of bleeding grape skins. It
tastes like a red wine that happens to have
bubbles and, like a red wine, needs time to
open. As it does, the delicate perfume gives
it a graceful feel, even as the powerful limestone
acidity continues to drive it forward.
91 | Alexandre Bonnet
$65
2018 Rosé des Riceys La Forêt ^ The cool
side of pinot noir, this reminded one taster
of a modest and generous peasant. There's
something fleshy and bloody about it, a
pale and translucent red-cherry flavor that's
mouthwatering in its purity.
GASTON cHIQUET
Récoltant-Manipulant in Dizy (Vallée de la
Marne); founded in 1919; owns 57 acres:
50% chardonnay, 30% pinot meunier, 20%
42
WINE & SPIR IT S
pinot noir. Vignerons: Nicolas and Antoine
Chiquet; 15,000 cases produced. Imported by
Skurnik Wines, NY
92 | Gaston Chiquet
$92
2013 Champagne Special Club Brut ^ Nicolas
Chiquet's Special Club comes mostly from
his home town of Dizy, a blend of pinot noir
(38 percent) with chardonnay (10 percent of
the chardonnay grown in Aÿ). He ferments it
in stainless steel, sustaining the wine's clean
chardonnay freshness against
the richer
tones of corn silk, toasted grain and vibrant
hints of plum. The wine's creaminess will
match langoustines roasted in a wood oven...
or shrimp and grits.
DUmENIL
Récoltant-Manipulant in Sacy (Montaigne
de Reims); founded in 1874; owns 26 acres
of chardonnay, pinot meunier & pinot noir;
average 15 years old; oldest vines: 65 years.
Cellarmaster: Frederique Poret Duménil;
Vigneron: Hugues Poret; 5,800 cases produced.
§ Importer: Vidalco Int'l, Charleston, WV
92 | Duménil
$70
Champagne 1er Cru by Jany Poret ^ This is
60 percent meunier, 30 percent pinot noir,
the blend including 60 percent reserve wine.
It tastes clean and fresh with a chalk-white
acidity against crisp apple ripeness, lasting
with the best kind of simplicity.
91 | Duménil
$80
Champagne 1er Cru Rosé Vieilles Vignes ^
The old vines referenced on the label are
meunier planted in 1956, providing the red
wine (7 percent) that lends its color. It also
lends a juicy raspberry and rhubarb flavor
over the earthiness and subtle floral notes in
the finish. For a rustic country pâté.
EGLY-OURIE T
Récoltant-Manipulant in Ambonnay (Montagne
de Reims); founded in 1930; owns 29
acres: 60% pinot noir, 25% chardonnay, 15%
pinot meunier; average vine age: 50 years;
oldest vines: 71 years. Vigneron: Francis Egly;
5,500 cases produced. § Imported by North
Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA
93 | Egly-Ouriet
$265
2011 Champagne Grand Cru Brut Milliseme
^ Francis Egly makes this wine from
vines in his hometown of Ambonnay. He
allows the juice to ferment spontaneously in
old oak barrels, then blocks malolactic conversion,
creating a firmly structured wine
with an inner tension. There's a tug of war
D E c E mb ER 2021
between the lively citrus, clover and goldenapple
scents, pulling against the oxidative
richness of mushroomy lees. A fascinating
wine from a rainy vintage, this feels balletic.
92 | Egly-Ouriet
$120
Champagne Grand Cru Brut ^The fruit of
vines planted in the 1970s in Ambonnay, Verzenay
and Bouzy, this wine offers a deep well
of fruit with the cool tone of pinot noir (70
percent of the blend), rooty and tight, then
lengthening out into a lasting complexity.
90 | Egly-Ouriet
$95
Champagne 1er Cru Brut Les Vignes de
Vrigny ^ From five acres of pinot meunier on
chalk soils in Vrigny, this wine offer scents of
apple blossoms, cider apples and an herbal
note of tomato leaf. Its pale strawberry flavor
is soft and heady. For chicken-liver mousse.
90 | Egly-Ouriet
$325
2018 Coteaux Champenois Ambonnay
Rouge Vieilles Vignes Cuvée des Grand
Côtés ^ Egly's old-vine pinot noir needs a
decade or more of bottle age to show itself
(the 2008 is drinking beautifully right now).
This 2018 is all power, its structure tough
when first poured, turning racy and brisk
the next day. There's a cool, zesty Ambonnay
rouge lying in wait.
PIERRE GImONNET & FILS
Récoltant-Manipulant in Cuis
(Côte des
Blancs); founded in 1935; owns 73 acres: 99%
chardonnay, 1% pinot noir; oldest vines: 108
years. Vignerons: Didier and Olivier Gimonnet;
20,833 cases produced. Imported by
Skurnik Wines, NY
93 | Pierre Gimonnet & Fils $56
Champagne 1er Cru Cuis Brut Blanc de
Blancs ^ From north-facing vineyards in Cuis,
this is 2017 chardonnay, enhanced with 27
percent of reserve wines aged in bottles, from
the 2010 to 2015 vintages. The pale-white
fruit holds mineral freshness in its depths of
white-cherry and white-peach flavors. The
acidity provides tension and limestone abrasion,
while feeling completely integrated into
the fruit. It's a gripping cold-climate chardonnay
for meaty game fish.
93 | Pierre Gimonnet & Fils $67
2015 Champagne 1er Cru Gastronome
Brut Blanc de Blancs ^A delicate floral and
mineral essense of Côte des Blancs chardonnay,
this wine broadens to lush and creamy
richness while remaining taut. Green notes
of pale strawberries show its youth, while
smoky orange and lemon citrus notes high
Wine & Spirits - December 2021

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