Wine & Spirits - Winter 2023 - 46

Champagne
93 | Bollinger
$170
Champagne Brut PN AYC 18 ^ The fourth
PN release focuses on pinot noir from Aÿ in
the 2018 vintage. The blend includes pinot
noir from other villages of the Montagne de
Reims, and oak-aged reserves from vintages
back to 2009. It's a Champagne to decant,
allowing the wine to open past its immediate
briskness, yielding the cooling scents of
rosewater and anise, plus an incipient roundness.
The flavors carry that coolness through
to the end. For the cellar. §
DELAMOTTE
Récoltant-Manipulant in Le Mesnil-surOger.
Annual Production: 66,667 cases.
Imported by Vineyard Brands,
Birmingham, AL
93 | Delamotte
$116
Champagne Brut Rosé ^ Based in Le Mesnilsur-Oger,
Delamotte focuses this wine on
chardonnay from its home village, along
with Avize and Oger. The rosé gains its color
and depth of fruit from a 12 percent addition
of still, red pinot noir-also from grand cru
villages, in this case Ambonnay, Bouzy and
Tours-sur-Marne. Panelist Mariko Kobayashi
found the wine to be as vinous as a Coteaux
Champenois, " tea-like, it would clean the
fattiness of duck with fruit. " The wine's redberry
flavors and scents of sage give it an elegant,
savory tone. Finely integrated. §
90 | Delamotte
$71
Champagne Brut ^ Champagne taken to
what one taster described as joyous ripeness
(she liked the pretty, pink-tinged moonlight
color, as well), this has touches of sweet
baked apricot without giving up its finesse. §
90 | Delamotte
$96
Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs ^ Scents
of baked grapefruit and lemon custard meet
savory lees in this rich, chalky Champagne.
One sommelier wanted a glass with his favorite
sour-cream-and-onion potato chips. §
DEUTZ
90 | Deutz
Négociant-manipulant in Aÿ. Annual
Production: 196,300 cases. Imported by
M.S. Walker, Somerville, MA
94 | Deutz
$200
2014 Champagne Brut William Deutz ^ A
portion of this blend-the pinot noir from
Aÿ and the chardonnay from Le Mesnil-surOger-is
certified biodynamic, from Deutz's
estate parcels. The rest is mostly from grand
46
WINE & SPIR IT S
$65
Champagne Brut Classic ^ Warm and leesy,
this Champagne shows some rubbery reduction
when first opened, but that is gone the
next day, suggesting it may dissipate with a
year in bottle. The wine picks up on the complexity
of reserve wines in the blend, scents
of hay in the fall, and the warmth of sun on
limestone. §
cru villages, farmed by long-time growers for
the house. This is a powerful, gastronomic
wine, yet it remains elegant, its limestone
and lees notes layered into scents of puff
pastry, its river of white fruit holding to a
tea-like savor. Clean and firmly structured
by a potent blast of limestone, the mineral
intensity lasts. §
93 | Deutz
$255
2013 Champagne Brut Amour de Deutz
Rosé ^ This pale pink wine is structured and
rich, building from notes of strawberry tops
toward vibrant red fruit. It includes a contribution
of pinot noir red wine from Deutz's
vines in Aÿ, contrasting that with tart creaminess-that
malolactic character is subtle and
stays out of the way of the mouthwatering
acidity. Satisfying and substantial enough for
roast pork or an herb-roasted chicken. §
92 | Deutz
$120
2017 Champagne Deutz Blanc de Blancs ^ A
generous Champagne, this carries the salinity
of oysters into its buttery puff-pastry
richness, lasting on mellow smoky notes of
limestone. Though 2017 may not be the most
tightly knit vintage, this one is lovely to drink
right now in parallel to an oyster pan roast or
fresh Maine lobster. §
91 | Deutz
$95
2016 Champagne Brut Rosé Millésime ^
This wine's potent strawberry and red-currant
intensity focuses on the concentration of
pinot noir in the 2016 vintage (it's 85 percent
pinot, 15 percent chardonnay). A seven percent
contribution of pinot noir as red wine
emphasizes its red fruit, while the mineral
depths carry some funky leesy notes, needing
a year of cellar time to rest and refresh. §
91 | Deutz
$120
2018 Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs ^
A young wine, this is tightly focused on yellow
nectarine flavor, salty lime-citrus acidity
and some earthy-vegetal notes of lima bean
and limestone. Hints of rose scents last along
with that limestone abrasion, needing a year
of rest to more fully emerge. §
FLEUR DE MIRAVAL
Négociant-manipulant in Le Mesnil-surOger.
Annual Production: 2,500 cases.
Imported by Vineyard Brands,
Birmingham, AL
93 | Fleur de Miraval
$350
Champagne Brut Rosé ^ This partnership
brings together Rodolphe Péters of Pierre
Péters, Brad Pitt of Miraval and the Perrin
family of Château de Beaucastel. They
collaborate on the production of Côte des
Blancs Champagne rosé de saignée, relying
on the skins of ripe pinot noir to provide a
delicate copper-pink partridge-eye color. The
majority of the wine is chardonnay from a
perpetual reserve held in large oak casks,
originating with the 1998 vintage. That perpetual
reserve brings a sophisticated layering
of flavor, combining with the pinot noir into
notes of tangy orange and sour cherries. NYC
sommelier Julia Bramowitz found the wine
to be " contemporary and urbane-very dry,
very tart, mineral and chalky. " §
NICOLAS FEUILLATTE
Coopérative-Manipulant in Chouilly.
Annual Production: 940,000 cases.
Imported by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates,
Woodinville, WA
90 | Nicolas Feuillatte
$60
2018 Champagne Brut Millésime Blanc de
Blancs ^ Soft and malo-rich, this is a gentle,
buttery, oxidative style of Champagne. Clean
and simple, its floral notes and zesty acidity
feel cool against the leesiness. §
89 | Nicolas Feuillatte
$56
Champagne Brut Reserve Exclusive Rosé
(BEST BUY) ^ Gentle and creamy, this wine's
oxidative leesiness underlies notes of roses.
There's enough crispness to keep it simple
and pleasurable. §
JEAN JOSSELIN
Récoltant-Manipulant in Gyé-sur-Seine.
Annual Production: 8,300 cases. Imported
by HB Wine Merchants, Hartly, DE
88 | Jean Josselin
$56
Champagne Extra Brut Cuvée des Jean
(BEST BUY) ^ Simple and brisk, this pinot-noir
Champagne has a balance of bitter-lemon
acidity and a sweet red veil of fruit. The
texture is creamy, even as the flavors feel
vibrant. §
W INTER 2023
Wine & Spirits - Winter 2023

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