The London Lounge

Champagne lovers unite.

I am heading to Epernay later on, someone has to do it, and its brutal work but discovering new bubbly sources is part of the research I accomplish for the LL.

I noticed in the favorite Champagne poll posted previously a list of the major well known brands marketed pretty much worldwide. These would be the Oxxford, Kiton, Borelli, Polo kinds of products. To find the small artisan producers (less than 60,000 bottles a year) you have to go "sur place."

Today's contribution to you all is a list of Alden's Certified Champagne Producers, names some of you may know. Most are sold in the US though they are probably pretty hard to come across:

Jacques Selosse, probably the best Champagne made today along with Salon

Egly-Ouriet, the best 100% Pinot Noir made today, from Ambonnay

Diebolt-Vallois, the cru "Fleur de Passion" is Cramant's best

Larmandier-Bernier, from Vertus

Pierre Moncuit, the most elegant wines from Le Mesnil

Marie-Noelle Ledru, the sisters from Ambonnay make a superlative Pinot Noir

Gatinois, the elegant Pierre Cheval-Gatinois makes an equally elegant Ay styled Pinot Noir

I will post more from the tasting room later. If you have any questions, let me know.

Michael

Mr. Alden, I'm sure you can suggest also the best Armagnacs available ... this is my favourite end of a dinner.

Giona.

Two cheers for Jacques Selosse (which, sadly, I've never seen on this side of the Atlantic)!

Giona has my amateur's endorsement for Armagnac, too.

But are there no other lovers of Sauternes in the LL?

RWS:

I love dessert wines and majority of the wine I have at home falls into this category. While I like Sauternes, I absolutely love Austrian desert wines especially the wines of Alois Kracher, an artisanal producer and champion of wine quality in the Austrian wine industry, and Ruster Ausbruch's -- very distictive wines from the town of Rust in eastern Austria. Kracher, in particular, has received a lot of press in the US in the last several years and his wines are available at some of the better wine stores in New York including Sherry Lehmann.

On a side note, I also really like aged Austrian Gruner Veltliners. While Gruner is an extremely aromatic white wine, its aging potential is indefinate. I can certify this based on some excellent Gruners I sampled in Vienna once that were from the 1940s and 50s. One of the top Austrian estates (Weingut Brundlmeyer) has been releasing older Gruners from its library and the 1979 (At Picholine) and the 1983 (at Craft) that I had were both superb. The 1979 in particular had a wonderful floral bouquet and the solid mineral backbone that Austrian whites are justifiably famous for.

Maybe we can think about a wine tasting as an event for the East Coast chapter at some later date. What do you think?

Best regards.

RWS wrote:Two cheers for Jacques Selosse (which, sadly, I've never seen on this side of the Atlantic)!

Giona has my amateur's endorsement for Armagnac, too.

But are there no other lovers of Sauternes in the LL?

Robb,

I love Sauternes. Since I must economize on something, I usually eschew the Chateau d'Yquem & settle for a Chateau LaTour-Blanche. That's my "house Sauternes," so to speak.

Regards.

Good choice, Nick: LaTour Blanche certainly offers a fine balance between palate and pocket. A favorite of mine is Rabaud-Promis (especially of the year of wonders, 1989), and there are several others well worth the taste. Now, if we could afford d'Yquem . . . .

For those of you who like this style of wine, we tend to drink alot of the Alsatian wines. Look for producers Marcel Deiss, Colette Faller, Zind Humbrecht, and Osterag to name the most famous ones.

The make Rieslings, Pinot Gris and Gewurtztraminers that are superb. The thing I like about these wines vis a vis Sauternes is their balance. Sauternes can often be to cloyingly sweet and lack sufficient acidity for freshness and balance. The Alsatian wines can be spectacular in their mix of sweet with the freshness of proper acidic content.

Try a Pinot Gris "Clos Windsbuhl " 1996 from ZindHumbrecht for an example of the above! Oh and they are generally much less expensive than Sauternes, and by many French experts they are considered superior wines....keep this a secret...

M Alden

Most are sold in the US though they are probably pretty hard to come across...Diebolt-Vallois, the cru "Fleur de Passion" is Cramant's best

For those of you in the Philadelphia, South Jersey or Delaware area, Moore Brothers carries this Champagne - and other from Diebolt-Vallois.

I remember Jacques Diebolt-Vallois telling me he had a distributor in Philadelphia.

If you are able to find any of his 1995 and 1996 vintages, do be advised to buy them. The "Fleur de Passion" is his top wine, a wonderful 100% chardonnay with a few years of ageing in oak casks. Both the 1995 and 1996 are superb. If you can find Magnums, please let me know.

Cheers

Diebolt-Vallois is available through Moore Bros. They have retail shops in my hometown of Wilmington, DE as well as Moorestown, NJ and the just opened a store in NYC in the Chlesea area.

I prefer thr D-V Tradition bottling, which, at $25, delivers delicious green apple bouquet.

Thanks for being more complete with the locations - that's what happens when replying at 6AM! Technically I think the NJ location is in Pennsauken, almost adjacent to Moorestown. I completely forgot about the NYC store. It must have opened early, it was targeted for late spring.

alden wrote:Champagne lovers unite.

I am heading to Epernay later on, someone has to do it, and its brutal work but discovering new bubbly sources is part of the research I accomplish for the LL.

I noticed in the favorite Champagne poll posted previously a list of the major well known brands marketed pretty much worldwide. These would be the Oxxford, Kiton, Borelli, Polo kinds of products. To find the small artisan producers (less than 60,000 bottles a year) you have to go "sur place."

Today's contribution to you all is a list of Alden's Certified Champagne Producers, names some of you may know. Most are sold in the US though they are probably pretty hard to come across:

Jacques Selosse, probably the best Champagne made today along with Salon

Egly-Ouriet, the best 100% Pinot Noir made today, from Ambonnay

Diebolt-Vallois, the cru "Fleur de Passion" is Cramant's best

Larmandier-Bernier, from Vertus

Pierre Moncuit, the most elegant wines from Le Mesnil

Marie-Noelle Ledru, the sisters from Ambonnay make a superlative Pinot Noir

Gatinois, the elegant Pierre Cheval-Gatinois makes an equally elegant Ay styled Pinot Noir

I will post more from the tasting room later. If you have any questions, let me know.

Michael

Thanks for the post. How does the Egly-Ourier compare in style (a more objective quality than quality) to some of the usual suspects on the larger end-- Krug, Bollinger, Pol Roger, etc.? There is a shop not far from here that is carrying the 96s--- my daughter's year--- and I'm making a little space amid the Burgundies for a little sparkling vino for her majority. But if it don't age, gotta know that also.

For reference, the vintage E-O is about $85/bl-- way less than Krug, more than Bollinger.

Excellent champagne.

alden wrote:For those of you who like this style of wine, we tend to drink alot of the Alsatian wines. Look for producers Marcel Deiss, Colette Faller, Zind Humbrecht, and Osterag to name the most famous ones.

The make Rieslings, Pinot Gris and Gewurtztraminers that are superb. The thing I like about these wines vis a vis Sauternes is their balance. Sauternes can often be to cloyingly sweet and lack sufficient acidity for freshness and balance. The Alsatian wines can be spectacular in their mix of sweet with the freshness of proper acidic content.

Try a Pinot Gris "Clos Windsbuhl " 1996 from ZindHumbrecht for an example of the above! Oh and they are generally much less expensive than Sauternes, and by many French experts they are considered superior wines....keep this a secret...

M Alden

I couldn't agree more.

We are fortunate where I live (San Francisco) to have a wine importer who has been screaming about Alsatian wines for years. He is a main importer of Zind Humbrecht, Keuntz Bas and Ostertag for the western United States. In my opinion, Zind Humbrecht may be the finest maker of wine in the world today. They offer an amazing array of prices, grapes, vineyards and harvests, but what does not vary is the quality and value of each of their offerings.

I have no idea why Alsatian wines (and Reislings in particular), have never received their just due in the United States. I am a firm believer that a great dry Riesling is every bit as interesting, intense and enjoyable as the great white Burgundies. Even better, they tend to compliment the most dificult foods to pair wine with. I would also submit that on average Alsatian wines from the good producers (those mentioned above), are of much higher quality than the white wines coming out other wine producing regions. I feel almost blessed that my two favorite wine groups (Alsatian white and Rose Champagne) are so underappreciated here, and hope that they remain this way.

As far as desert wines, I find that the Vendage Tardive Rieslings and Guevertztraminers are at least as good as any Sauternes outside of d'Yquem, and the the SGN Alsatians give d'Yquem a run for quality and certainly for value. The SGN wines (especially Guevertztraminer) are so gluttonous that you would never want them with, but as, desert.

For those in California who are fans of Jacques Selosse, the Ritz-Carlton Dining Room in San Francisco has a half of a case left. They had eight bottles before Friday night . Unfortunately, the food is not what it once was, but the Sommolier and his wares continue to be terrific.