Wine & Spirits - December 2021 - 45

Champagne
mOUSSE FILS
Négociant-Manipulant in Cuisles (Vallée de
la Marne); founded in 1923; owns 26 acres:
85% pinot meunier, 12% pinot noir and 3%
chardonnay. Vigneron: Cédric Moussé; 7,083
cases produced. § Importer: Skurnik Wines, NY
91 | Moussé Fils
$103
2016 Champagne Special Club Extra Brut
Les Fortes Terres Meunier ^This is 100 percent
pinot meunier from the lieu-dit Les
Fortes Terres in Cuisles, where the vines grow
in illite, a green-gray clay. It opens to translucent
red-berry flavors, clean and saturated,
lasting with a tannic hint of pink-peppercorn
spice. For a country pâté with pistachios.
mOUZON-LEROUX
Récoltant-Manipulant in Verzy (Montagne
de Reims); founded in 1776; owns 19 acres:
60% pinot noir, 35% chardonnay, 5% others.
Vigneron: Sébastien Mouzon; 4,000 cases
produced. Imported by Skurnik Wines, NY
90 | Mouzon-Leroux
$49
Champagne Grand Cru Verzy Tradition
l'Atavique Extra Brut (BEST BUY) ^ ^ Sébastien
Mouzon's domaine is certified organic. He
kicks off fermentation of his wines with a pied
de cuve, aging a majority of the base wines
in four-year-old barrels from Louis Jadot in
Beaune. This wine, a blend of 2015 and '16
in equal proportions, hints at oak spice and
anise over rich apple and scents of puff pastry,
the structure tight, the flavors distinctive.
FRANcIS ORbAN
Récoltant-Manipulant in Leuvrigny (Vallée
de la Marne); founded in 1929; owns 18 acres:
90% pinot meunier, 10% chardonnay; average
vine age: 30 years; oldest vines: 50 years.
Vigneron: Francis Orban; 3,500 cases produced.
Imported by North Berkeley Imports,
Berkeley, CA
91 | Francis Orban
$52
Champagne Extra Brut This is pinot
meunier from sandy clay soils in the Marne
Valley, the fruit spontaneously fermented
in stainless-steel vats. Half of the blend is
reserve wines, and the dosage is minimal.
The wine is tangy and plump, with an austere
plum-tomato note that yields to brioche
scents and vinous complexity as the flavors
open. An alternate side of Champagne.
OUDIETTE & FILLES
Récoltant-Manipulant in Beaunay; founded
in 2014; owns 6 acres: 42% chardonnay,
48% pinot meunier, 9% pinot noir; average
vine age: 30 years; oldest vines: 63 years.
Vigneron: Margot Laurent; 333 cases produced.
§ Imported by De Maison Selections,
Chapel Hill, NC
91 | Oudiette & Filles
$73
Champagne Uni Terre Extra Brut ^ Margot
Laurent farms her family's small estate
in Beaunay, just east of the southern reaches
of the Côte des Blancs. She fermented this
chardonnay in used oak barrel and bottled
it as her first release-a toasty and vinous
wine as firmly mineral as a Chablis. Its leesy
intensity and corn-silk notes would take on
an oyster pan roast.
bRUNO PAILLARD
Négociant-Manipulant in Reims; founded
in 1981; owns 30 acres: 30% chardonnay,
40% pinot noir, 20% pinot meunier; average
vine age: 35-40 years; oldest vines: 65 years.
Cellarmaster: Laurent Guyot; Vigneron:
Mathieu Pingret; 29,000 cases produced. §
Imported by Wine Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA
93 | Bruno Paillard
$240
2008 Champagne N.P.U. Nec Plus Ultra ^
This top selection from grand-cru parcels fermented
in oak barriques, where it aged for
10 months. That oak influence comes across
as a dustiness when the wine is first poured,
a character that's gone the next day, when
the wine tastes of fresh apples and pears. It's
tightly structured, tense and powerful, the
cool vintage lending the wine a deep, meaty
savor. Built to age, this will be more forthcoming
with its pleasures in five years.
92 | Bruno Paillard
$75
Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru ^
All Côte des Blancs chardonnay, this blend
includes 25 vintage of reserve wine, back
to 1985. It's a muscular chardonnay that
remains bone-white, austere in its limestone
savor, powerful in its pale grape-skin intensity.
Built for dinner, it would work with a
creamy porcini risotto.
92 | Bruno Paillard
$105
2012 Champagne Assemblage ^Scents of
hibiscus and green grapes show off this wine's
youth, still tight after its long aging. Crisp
green apple and brisk lemon emphasize the
freshness that will hold the flavors for years
to come. It feels layered and complete.
91 | Bruno Paillard
$95
2012 Champagne Blanc de Blancs ^This
wine's sweet floral scents bring to mind
orange blossoms and juicy oranges. There's
a powerful burst of flavor, then the wine lasts
on the tongue, mineral and refreshing. It will
reward several years of cellaring.
PALmER & cO.
Coopérative-Manipulant in Reims; founded
in 1947; owns 1,050 acres: 45% chardonnay,
40% pinot noir, 15% pinot meunier; average
25-30 years old; oldest vines: 63 years. Cellarmaster:
Xavier Berdin; 63,000 cases produced.
§ Imported by Quintessential, Napa, CA
93 | Palmer
$80
Champagne Rosé Solera ^This wine gains its
color from a solera of pinot noir, representing
eight percent of the blend; reserve wines
account for another third. The pale pink
color implies the wine's delicacy, but not its
layers of complexity. It layers notes of ginger,
strawberries and roses over red currants, lasting
on a savory, lacy intensity. Ready to enjoy.
PEHU-SImONET
Récoltant-Manipulant in Verzenay (Montagne
de Reims); founded in 1972; owns
16 acres: 78% pinot noir, 22% chardonnay.
Vigneron: David Pehu; 6,000 cases produced. §
Imported by Skurnik Wines, NY
94 | Pehu-Simonet
$54
Champagne Grand Cru Face Nord Brut ^
Based on the 2017 vintage, this blend
includes 30 percent from a perpetual reserve
established in 2005. It's focused on David
Pehu's parcels in Verzenay, Verzy and Sillery,
weighted toward pinot noir (70 percent), and
it is red fruit thats pours out of the glass. Powerfully
structured as a young wine, with a hint
of vanilla bean (20 percent of the base wines
were vinified in oak), this is more accessible
a day after the cork is popped: The mineral
acidity turns frisky, the layered intensity of
cèpes and chalk mellows toward generosity.
D E c E mb ER 2021
WINE & SPIR IT S
45
https://www.champagne-palmer.fr/en/vins/rose-solera-en/
Wine & Spirits - December 2021

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