Champagne Tasting.....

Under the doom and gloom of the financial crisis and after reading the front page of The Telegraph, which kindly lets us know that we're all 3 days from catching some sort of incurable flu...I thought a little Champagne tasting may be in order....if bubbles can't fix a problem, what can?

We tasted 3 champagnes: Ayala Blanc de Blancs 2002, Veuve.A.Devaux Blanc de Noirs NV and Louis Roederer's Carte Blanche Demi-Sec, also NV.

Ayala Blanc de Blancs 2002: Ayala is a champagne house, which was founded in 1860, but which has been recently bought by Bollinger (also based in the village of Ay, (pronounced 'ai-ee') and hence the name AYala). This is Pinot Noir country yet this prestige cuvée is 100% Chardonnay. And strangely enough, Ayala doesn't think to put the words 'Grand Cru' on its label despite the fact that all the Chardonnay grapes for this wine are of Grand Cru status (50% from Mesnil-sur-Oger, 25% Cramant and 25% from Chouilly). This is, therefore, a very serious wine from a very serious vintage.
A very pale robe with a slight lemon hue with an almond and brioche nose. A fine persistant trail of bubbles also mark this champagne. On the palate, the Champagne shows less acidity than expected, almost creamy - undoubtedly through the malolactic fermentation not being blocked and it has good length in the mouth. A rich and opulent chardonnay with the steeliness of a decent Burgundy. Puligny-Montrachet with bubbles!

Veuve.A.Devaux Blanc de Noirs N.V:
Moving completely to the other end of the champagne spectrum this time with a 100% Pinot Noir Champagne. Veuve.A.Devaux is a champagne house founded in 1846 (originally where Perrier-Jouët now stands) but now based in the Aube, the most southern area of Champagne, in Bar-sur-Seine. The Aube is a huge supplier of Pinot Noir to the larger champagne houses in the more northerly Marne, Veuve Clicquot and Piper-Heidsieck to name but a couple, so it goes without saying that the black grapes here are second to none.
On the nose a typical Aubois Pinot Noir nose with red berries, bitter black cherries and aniseed.
On the palate, a big round, yeasty wine as one would expect with minty notes towards the end and almost a powered sugar sensation on the tip of your tongue despite the low 11g/l dosage.
Excellent.

Louis Roederer Carte Blanche Demi-Sec NV:
From the great Champagne house in the Marne from whom we have Cristal, Roederer is one of the few grandes marques who produce such a quality medium-sweet cuvée. We used this as a dessert, almost a digéstif towards the end of the evening and rightly so seeing as it has a huge 45g/l of residual sugar thanks to the dosage. A powerful, intense wine. On the nose we find apples and pears followed by a liquid pear-drop sensation on the palate. Caramalised quince flavours were also dominant through the lightly frothy mousse. This could quite easily substitute a medium sherry as a Christmas mid-morning drink and would work quite well with a tart fruit dessert.


Champagne tasting over but more to come, I can assure you.
Santé,
Keith