Wine & Spirits - December 2021 - 47

Champagne
and pinot noir from the Marne Valley. The
final blend is 34 percent perpetual reserve,
10 percent oak-aged reserves, and 56 percent
from the 2017 harvest. While Brut Premier
was a more spherical wine in the mouth, Collection
242 is finer, with greater length of flavor
and more energy. The scent is floral and
seashell-mineral, the texture caressing, then
tense. My notes and the comments from the
panel are all about the wine's harmony and
structure, without a word about fruit. It's an
exciting wine to taste and to drink.
93 | Louis Roederer
$89
2014 Champagne Blanc de Blancs The
texture of this wine is luscious and smooth,
completely saturating the taste with notes
of cream and an oyster-shell complexity, the
scent of wet limestone being cut. It's mouthwatering,
with the earthiness for escargots.
92 | Louis Roederer
$200
2018 Coteaux Champenois Rouge Camille
Hommage Mareuil-sur-Aÿ Charmont^
Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon began to plan for this
release 20 years ago, when he planted pinot
noir selections for still wines at an estate
parcel in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. In 2018, those
vines delivered a luscious and elegant red,
its extract draped in damask rose and a rich
mountain-herb scent. A bold young wine,
this will be fascincating to watch as it ages.
92 | Louis Roederer
$79
2015 Champagne Rosé ^A short maceration
with the grape skins adds color and vinous
depths of flavor to this earthy wine. It opens
to brisk and bold red-fruit flavors that one
taster compared to a tibouren rosé from Bandol.
Cellar this to bring up its complexities.
RUINART
JEAN VESSELLE
Négociant-Manipulant in Reims; founded in
1729; owns 50 acres; Cellarmaster: Frédéric
Panaïotis. Importer: Moët Hennessy U.S.A, NY
92 | Ruinart
$89
Champagne Rosé ^This blends chardonnay
(45 percent) and pinot noir (55 percent, of
which 19 percent was vinified as red wine).
They come together in a lasting essence of
roses and wild strawberries, the wine's fruit
complexity amplified by the sensation of
acidity, with its fine limestone abrasion. A
clean, simple beauty from Champagne.
90 | Ruinart
$79
Champagne Blanc de Blancs ^Creamy in
its gentle texture, this has the floral scent of
hops and the sweet citrus tang of oranges. A
subtle aperitif.
Récoltant-Manipulant in Bouzy (Montagne
de Reims); founded in 1885; owns 40 acres:
90% pinot noir, 10% chardonnay; average
vine age: 30 years; oldest vines: 50 years.
Vignerons: Delphine & David Vesselle;
12,500 cases produced. Imported by North
Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA
92 | Jean Vesselle
$65
Champagne Brut Rosé de Saignée ^This
pinot noir gains its deep pomegranatepink
color from 24 to 48 hours of maceration
on the skins, before the juice is bled off
into stainless steel tanks to ferment without
added yeasts. It's a tight, floral wine, with
clean red-cherry flavors, mouthwatering and
bright. A meaty pinot, this is refreshing and
targeted at food, like carnitas with lime.
VILmART & cIE
Négociant-Manipulant in Rilly-la-Montagne
(Montagne de Reims); founded in 1890;
owns 27 acres: 60% chardonnay, 36% pinot
noir, 4% pinot meunier. Vigneron: Laurent
Champs; 8,333 cases produced. Imported by
Skurnik Wines, NY
92 | Vilmart & Cie
$77
Champagne 1er Cru Grand Cellier Brut ^
This is a 70-30 blend of chardonnay and pinot
noir grown in clay-limestone soils. The components
come from harvests in 2014 through
'16, the wines aged 10 months in foudre. It's
spicy in its structure and lasting in its fruit,
with flavors ranging from the red blush of
pear skin to orange and dry pineapple. Powerful,
generous and still tight, this should
develop well over the next several years. l
D E c E mb ER 2021
WINE & SPIR IT S
47
VARNIER-FANNIERE
Récoltant-Manipulant in Avize (Côte des
Blancs); founded in 1947; owns 10 acres of
chardonnay; average vine age: 45 years; oldest
vines: 70+ years. Cellarmaster/Vigneron:
Valérie Varnier; 3,000 cases produced.
Imported by Skurnik Wines, NY
95 | Varnier-Fannière
$63
Champagne Grand Cru Brut ^This wine is
based on the 2017 harvest, the first season
Valérie Varnier was working on her own,
having taken charge at the estate after her
husband, Denis, passed away. It's a pretty
righteous wine: A pure chalk beauty with
impeccable precision, it has the floral scent
of freshly churned butter and the earthiness
of a fresh-dug potato combining in rich elegance,
a luscious wine without weight. To
Mariko Kobayashi, it showed off " great growing,
getting everything right in the vineyard. "
mAURI cE VESSELLE
Récoltant-Manipulant in Bouzy & Tourssur-Marne;
founded in 1955; owns 19 acres:
85% pinot noir, 15% chardonnay; average
vine age: 38 years; oldest vines: 70 years.
Vignerons: Didier & Thierry Vesselle; 4,500
cases produced. § Importer: Asgram, Miami, FL
93 | Maurice Vesselle
$80
Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Réservée ^
Bouzy is pinot noir central and this wine
shows its red fruit in fragrant berry scents as
well as pink-grapefruit acidities. The freshness
comes along with the red blush of pear
skin and paler golden-apple flavors. Complex,
layered and intriguingly Bouzy.
Négociant-Manipulant in Reims; founded in
1772; owns 900 acres: 42% pinot noir, 47%
chardonnay, 11% pinot meunier. Cellarmaster:
Didier Mariotti; Vigneron: Romain le
Guillou. § Imported by Moët Hennessy USA, NY
93 | Veuve Clicquot
$85
2012 Champagne Vintage Rosé ^This is a
powerful Rosé, built with the addition of 13
percent red wine (pinot noir from Bouzy)
and 11 percent of the blend aged in oak foudres.
It starts off youthfully intense, with a
smoky black-tea edge to the tannins. The
wine is structured and savory, freighted with
limestone earthiness until it grows bright and
racy with air. This is built to last.
91 | Jean Vesselle
$65
Champagne Oeil de Perdrix Brut ^In the
19th century, Delphine Vesselle's family
made wines in this style without trying-
their pinot noir grape skins would bleed
into the juice on the way from the vineyard
to the winery. Her father reinvented the wine
by allowing his pinot noir to macerate on its
skins for less than a day, as she does to produce
this wine's light-pink color and meaty,
powerful structure. It's tannic and appetiteinducing,
a main-course Champagne for
pheasant (or partridge, if you prefer).
90 | Jean Vesselle
$115
2010 Champagne Grand Cru Bouzy Brut
Prestige ^ This is a pinot noir-focused Champagne
from the chalk soils of Bouzy. The fruit
tones are cool and savory, with an umami
note of green tea. Soft and satisfying, it's a
wine to pour with a salmon soufflé.
VEUVE cLIcQUOT
Wine & Spirits - December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - December 2021
