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Champagne Region
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Year |
Region |
Description |
Price |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
A. Margaine Demi-Sec |
$47.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Cedric Bouchard BDN |
$84.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Sainte-Anne |
$46.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Delamotte Brut |
$39.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Deutz Brut Classic |
$49.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition |
$65.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Gaston Chiquet 'Carte Verte' Brut Tradition
375ml |
$29.99 |
| Details |
2002 |
Champagne, France |
Gaston Chiquet Brut Tradition Blanc de Blancs d'Ay Brut |
$49.99 |
| Details |
MV |
Champagne, France |
Henri Billiot "Cuvee Laetitia" MV, Tete de Cuvee |
$98 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Henri Billiot Brut Rose, NV |
$59.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Jacques Lassaigne Cuvee Le Cotet |
$39.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Jean Laurent Blanc de Noir Brut NV |
$47.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Jean Milan Oger Blanc de Blancs |
$52.99 |
| Details |
N.V. |
Champagne, France |
L. Aubry Fils Brut |
$51.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Pierre Gimonnet 1er Cru Brut NV |
$52.99 |
| Details |
2003 |
Champagne, France |
Pierre Peters Brut 2003 |
$76.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Pierre Peters Cuvee de Reserve Brut |
$54.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Selosse "Substance" |
$279.99 |
| Details |
2001 |
Champagne, France |
Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee 2001 |
$149.99 |
| Details |
NV |
Champagne, France |
Vilmart et Cie. Cuvee Grand Cellier NV |
$74.99 |
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![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=130255.jpg&extdesc=Cedric Bouchard BDN&subdesc=NV®ion=Champagne, France&name=Pinot Noir&price=84.99¬es="The hand-crafted Champagnes of Cedric Bouchard remain some of the most fascinating wines to emerge from the region. I have been drinking last year’s releases over this past year and the wines have never failed to deliver immense pleasure. All of the Bouchard wines are made in a strictly non-interventionalist method. The organic vineyards are farmed to very low yields. The fruit is hand-harvested and the grapes are crushed by foot and fermented with indigenous yeasts. The wines are aged in stainless steel and are bottled unfined and unfiltered with no dosage. The estate offers two ranges; the Inflorescence wines are made from vineyards owned by Bouchard’s father, while the Roses de Jeanne wines are made from Bouchard’s own vines. These remain some of the most vivid, eloquent Champagnes readers are likely to come across and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
The NV (2007) Roses de Jeanne Blanc de Noirs (Les Ursules) is another of the Bouchard wines that tells readers very little about what is in the bottle, in this case 100% 2007 Pinot Noir from Les Ursules vineyard. This is the most open and intensely Pinot-expressive of the Bouchard Blancs de Noirs. The wine possesses broad, expansive shoulders, with layers of perfumed berries, minerals and hard candy that fill out its frame with impeccable grace. The mineral infused, silky finish lasts an eternity. As exceptional as this wine is, it also needs time to come together, as some of the elements occasionally appear disjointed. The wine’s potential, however, is impossible to ignore. The 2007 Les Ursules spent 18-20 months on its lees and was disgorged April 16, 2009. Production: 2,800 bottles. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2021. " Robert Parker
FOOD PAIRINGS: Oysters on the half shell, Mini Herb Frittatas with Smoked Salmon, Orange Roughy on Rice with Thai-Spiced Coconut Sauce.&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100071.jpg&extdesc=Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Sainte-Anne &subdesc=NV®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=46.99¬es=Grower champagnes are made by vintners who grow their own grapes, make their own wine and bottle it under their own name. Much of the wine world works in this way, but not in Champagne. The "big houses" put out millions of bottles a year by buying grapes or even wine from many other people.
Growers don't have the luxury of a hundred lots of wines pulled from all over the 75,000-plus-acre region. They are farmers, after all, and what they have to work with is what they have grown. Typically, that's a dozen or so acres of vineyard in just one or two places, which means the flavor of the wine is already partly predetermined by the climate, soils and grapes grown in that area.
In essence, you might find that it's easier to get to know these wines, as, unlike the large houses, the small Champagne growers are more than happy to share with consumers the provenance of their grapes, their methods of making the wines and their philosophy. (They're also often cheaper.) For the growers, the purpose of making champagne is to show off the land and its fruit, not shroud it in mystique.
Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, Nov/Dec '02 - Pts 89 - Slightly disjointed aromas of green apple, toffee and warm nut bread. Then firm and intensely flavored, with ripe flavors of apple, lemon and toast. Not hugely complex but shows excellent fruit. Offers very good extract and underlying structure. Finishes firm and persistent.
FOOD PAIRING: Warm Crab Dip with Fresh Herbs, Caviar and Potato Salad Tartlets, Veal Scallops with Schotch Whisky Pan Sauce&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100278.jpg&extdesc=Gaston Chiquet 'Carte Verte' Brut Tradition
375ml&subdesc=NV®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=29.99¬es="With one, maybe two exceptions, this would wipe the floor with anything from any négoçiant." - M. Skurnik
Stephen Tanzer - The Wine Analyst, Nov 03 - Rated: 91
Exotic aromas of honeysuckle, minerals, rose petal and brown butter, with hints of dried fruits. Intensely flavored, frothy and quite dry, with delicate fruits complemented by suggestions of toast and nuts. Stylish, seamless and very long. A superb value in Champagne.
20 percent Pinot Noir, 45 percent Pinot Meunier, and 35 percent Chardonnay
FOOD PAIRING: Grilled Chicken Paillards with Cilantro Mint Dressing, Creamed Oysters and Leeks on toast, Herbed Pork Tenderloin with Strawberry salsa&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100074.jpg&extdesc=Gaston Chiquet Brut Tradition Blanc de Blancs d'Ay Brut &subdesc=2002®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=49.99¬es="With one, maybe two exceptions, this would wipe the floor with anything from any négoçiant." - M. Skurnik
Stephen Tanzer - The Wine Analyst, Nov 03 - Rated: 91
Exotic aromas of honeysuckle, minerals, rose petal and brown butter, with hints of dried fruits. Intensely flavored, frothy and quite dry, with delicate fruits complemented by suggestions of toast and nuts. Stylish, seamless and very long. A superb value in Champagne.
20 percent Pinot Noir, 45 percent Pinot Meunier, and 35 percent Chardonnay
FOOD PAIRING: Grilled Chicken Paillards with Cilantro Mint Dressing, Creamed Oysters and Leeks on toast, Herbed Pork Tenderloin with Strawberry salsa&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100261.jpg&extdesc=Henri Billiot "Cuvee Laetitia" MV, Tete de Cuvee&subdesc=MV®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=98¬es=Grower Champagne is just what it sounds like: Champagne that is grown, made and bottled by a single domaine. Why is grower Champagne special? It’s like microbrews versus mass-produced beers.
To say that Serge Billiot runs a small winery would, to a certain extent, be understating the case. This family run winery in the tiny town of Ambonnay produces merely 3750 cases of wine per year, eked out of about 12 acres of limestone-rich, exclusively Grand Cru vineyards planted mostly with Pinot Noir.
This wine takes a little explaining since it is not your ordinary production Champagne. First of all it is a Tete de Cuvée, which is a fancy way of saying that it's a flagship or "top" bottling from the estate. Remarkably, for an estate as small as it is, Billiot produces two such wines, of which this is his best.
The wine, unlike the rest of his production which is mostly Pinot Noir based (75%), is made from mostly Chardonnay, and apparently the percentage of Chardonnay keeps increasing every year. As a non-vintage wine it is made solera style, meaning that each year is a blend of wine from the current crop of grapes along with wine from past years. The current mix, according to its importer Terry Theise, goes back to 1983.
Only 350 cases of Billiot wines make it to the US every year, and of those only a few can be this wine.
FOOD PAIRINGS: Sautéed morel mushrooms and shallots with fresh thyme over goat cheese crisps, Smoked Salmon Spirals, Chickpea Fries with Sage and Parmesan, Golden Gratinéed Shellfish&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100260.jpg&extdesc=Henri Billiot Brut Rose, NV&subdesc=NV®ion=Champagne, France&name=Pinot Noir&price=59.99¬es=Ask most people to name a good Champagne, and most will likely stall after a couple of well known names like "Cristal" or "Dom Perignon." Like many industries, the world of Champagne is represented in the minds of many and the world media by a few mega-brands whose very identities have come to stand for Champagne, and who often literally eclipse many others with their popularity.
Henri Billiot's Champagnes are truly unique because he does not filter his wines, and they never undergo malolactic fermentation. Billiot also uses no dosage (added sugar before corking), claiming his fruit is ripe enough to do without, but this wine does not taste significantly dry. A Billiot bottle may show a slightly metallic aroma for the first few minutes as the lavish and deep fruit flavors slowly emerge.
FOOD PAIRINGS: Perfect with white meat in cream sauce or Bresse chicken, it will bring out the best in unsmoked Scottish salmon marinated in lime or a carpaccio of scallops.&id=){kind=link}
 to avoid this famous white variety. During a huge popularity surge beginning in the late 1980s, Chardonnay plantings have increased dramatically -- not only in California's wine country, with which the variety is nearly synonymous, but also in Burgundy (its original, Old World home) and just about everywhere else in the winemaking world.
The Montgueux vineyard, held for the Montrachet of Champagne, is a unique spot in Champagne right at the gates of the City of Troyes, the former capital of Champagne. This cuvee comes from a single vineyard called "Le Catet.' Here, the 40 plus year old vines are deeply rooted in the chalky hillside, at the furthest eastern part of the Montgueux vineayrds. A mineral wine, very fresh, that exhibits lemony notes on the finish.
FOOD PAIRINGS: Oysters on the half shell, Mini Herb Frittatas with Smoked Salmon, Orange Roughy on Rice with Thai-Spiced Coconut Sauce&id=){kind=link}
 Champagne. Jean Milan is a small domaine with only 12 acres with an average vineyard age of 29 years. 4,500 cases made.
"Crisp and delicate, this is harmonious and beautifully balanced, showing lemon, grain, and honey flavors that linger on the finish." 89 points, Wine Spectator &id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100164.jpg&extdesc=Pierre Gimonnet 1er Cru Brut NV&subdesc=NV®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=52.99¬es=A brilliant example of why Farmer Fizz is so sought after! First, you get character. You get the taste of a small slice of terroir. Didier Gimonnet, is brilliant, young, and unfailingly honest.The wine is from Cuis in Cote de Blancs. Cuis is about fruit and also about tenderness; Cuis is the flesh of the assemblage. Its fruit is often quite complex, wicky and waxy a little like Chenin. Growers in Grand Cru villages affect to condescend to Cuis, but Didier sees it as indispensable to his style. “Don’t forget,” he reminds us, “Bollinger has 25 hectares in Cuis. When you taste Bollinger you taste Cuis!”His 25 hectar estate is all chalk soil which the 100 % Chardonnay translates beautifully into the wine. Terry Theise describes the bubbles "This represents the archetypal style of Gimonnet: vivacious, light and with finesse.” The nose has some of the 2004 grassiness, but the palate is quite markedly fuller; stylish, with easily visible complexity and class."
FOOD PAIRINGS: Smoked Salmon and Herbed Egg Salad Involtini, Smashed Potatoes with Caviar, Smoky Deviled Eggs&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100232.jpg&extdesc=Pierre Peters Brut 2003&subdesc=2003®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=76.99¬es="The 2003 Brut Pierre Peters is an explosive wine loaded with fruit. There is lovely density and richness, yet the wine retains notable balance. In some ways, this is an atypical Champagne for this house, yet it is compelling juice all the same. Readers who want to appreciate this wine at its finest will want to open the bottle ahead of serving it, as the wine needs some air to find its inner balance. Yields were abnormally low in 2003 owing to a bizarre growing season that included a spring frost and a scorching hot summer. As a result, Peters harvested vineyards in the cooler microclimates first, and paradoxically picked the parcels in the warmer sites later, which allowed the fruit to achieve as much phenolic ripeness as was possible that year. Simply put, this is a remarkable effort in this difficult vintage. The blend is approximately 50% Mesnil, 25% Oger, 15% Avize and 10% Cramant. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2013." Robert Parker -The Wine Advocate
Food Pairings: Creamed Oysters and Leeks On Toast, Creamy Cucumber Velouté, Smoked Salmon Spirals.&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=110383.jpg&extdesc=Selosse "Substance"&subdesc=NV®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=279.99¬es=The WIne Advocate, 96 points:
"The NV Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Substance is the wine that perhaps encapsulates this producer’s philosophy to the fullest. Selosse thinks vintages are given far too much importance, and with this wine he seeks to exalt the qualities of Avize Chardonnay to the fullest. The Substance is best described as a multi-vintage solera-style wine in which 22% of each vintage is blended with the wine of previous years. Notes of honey, almonds, baking spices, dried apricots and candied orange peel emerge from this compelling, totally unique wine. The solera approach naturally gives this wine some oxidative notes that may come as a surprise to unsuspecting tasters. For that reason, the Substance is probably the hardest wine in this lineup to immediately understand. This bottle was disgorged on November 20, 2007.
Readers will need to drop all preconceived notions about what Champagne is and can be in order to fully experience the wines of Anselme and Corinne Selosse, as these are Champagnes like no other. No one has pushed the boundaries of what Champagne can be further than Selosse. As great as his own wines are, Selosse’s most lasting legacy may very well be influencing the younger generation of producers who have worked alongside him over the years. For the last six years Selosse has been absent from the US market and his wines virtually impossible to obtain, but thankfully that is starting to change. Selosse represents the most poetic voice behind the idea that Champagne is first and foremost a wine before it is anything else. Selosse takes this one step further by eschewing vintage designations for most of his wines, as the qualities he seeks to exalt most are those of his 7.5 vineyards in Avize, Cramant, Oger, Le Mesnil, Ay, Mareuil-sur- Ay and Ambonnay. The various cuvees are assembled barrel by barrel based on how the wines taste to Selosse, rather than through technical analysis and/or predetermined selection of sites, parcels, etc. Selosse’s newest wine is a solera-style Champagne from the famed Le Mesnil vineyard, perhaps the most storied site in all of Champagne. I tasted the first vintage, the 2003, which will ultimately be blended with subsequent vintages to form a solera-style Champagne. It was superb. I also tasted similar solera-style wines from Avize, Cramant, Le Mesnil, Mareuil-sur- Ay and Ambonnay from barrel, all of which were compelling. The Selosse Champagnes possess extraordinary aromatics and a very fine mousse that is the result of density and richness in the fruit. With a few minutes in the glass, the bubbles will completely disappear from most of the wines. These Champagnes are best enjoyed with food, and should be served in generous white wine glasses rather than the customary flutes, which will allow for the full range of the wines’ aromas and flavors to emerge. Simply put, these are among the most monumental, profound wines being made anywhere, but like a great novel, painting or symphony, the greatest enjoyment and purest pleasure awaits those who engage the wines fully."&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100279.jpg&extdesc=Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee 2001&subdesc=2001®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=149.99¬es=Champagne Vilmart was founded by Desire Vilmart in the sleepy hamlet of Rilly, south of Reims, in the heart of La Grande Montagne de Reims in 1872. Their vineyards are planted with 60 percent Chardonnay, 37 percent Pinot Noir and 3 percent Pinot Meunier. Yields and working practices are strickly controlled.
In 1990, Laurent Champs, came into the business and introduced the practice of new oak barrel ageing for thir top cuvees and with a series of extraordinary Champagnes brought Vilmart to teh attention of the international wine ress and subsequently the export markets.
"The 2001 Brut Premier Cru Coeur de Cuvee is a phenomenal wine, especially considering the tricky year. The 2001 is a big, imposing Coeur de Cuvee that explodes from the glass with waves of mineral-infused fruit. Here, too, the oak is beautifully balanced. The finish remains intensely chalky, yet creamy. Today the 2001 is painfully young and in need of time on the cork, but it is terrific in every way. The mousse is slightly less polished than the exceptional 2000 tasted alongside it, but that is splitting hairs at this level. The Coeur de Cuvee is 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir aged in oak. Only the middle 800 liters, i.e. the “heart” is used for the wine. Disgorged: April, 2008. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2021.
Proprietor Laurent Champs makes some of the most elegant, refined wines in Champagne. All of the wines are aged in oak ranging from large, neutral casks to small barriques, some of which are new for the top selections. Few producers have been able to find such impeccable balance using oak. A hint of Ramonet here, a suggestion of Leflaive there....simply put, these are majestic wines that no one who loves fine Champagne will want to be without. 93 Points" Robert Parker
FOOD PAIRNG: Creamed Oysters and Leeks On Toast, Herbed Pork Tenderloin with Strawberry Salsa, Smoked Salmon and Herbed Egg Salad Involtini&id=){kind=link}
![Details](kiosk.asp?picturename=100077.jpg&extdesc=Vilmart et Cie. Cuvee Grand Cellier NV&subdesc=NV®ion=Champagne, France&name=Chardonnay&price=74.99¬es="Each village has a different style of wine, and within each village different locations have different styles," said Paul Couvreur, who, with his wife, Françoise, has joined forces with Becky Wasserman, a wine broker in Burgundy, to market grower-produced Champagnes. "These Champagnes are much more on the wine side. We sell to people who think that Champagne is not only bubbles and fizz, but chardonnay and pinot noir. It's wine you can think about." - The New York Times (on the web) November 12, 2003
FOOD PAIRING: Rotelle and Shrimp with Yogurt Dill Dressing, Spinach Feta and Tarragon Frittata, Sour Fish Soup with Napa Cabbage and Enoki Mushrooms
&id=){kind=link}