In Ken Gargett’s opinion, the Pol Roger Brut 2018 vintage is brilliant champagne that you simply fall head over heel for, it will easily handle the best part of twenty years in a good cellar, over which time the complexity will grow.
Everyday wines are very much a budget/quality/preference equation and you should always ensure you have sufficient of these available. Pointy end wines are those for special occasions and family events. These are the wines you want to be good for your cellar or wine fridge.
When one of the world’s leading wine critics names a non-vintage champagne as their Wine of the Year (not just Champagne of the Year), then it is worth a look, especially in competition with 36,000 other wines. The wine is Laurent-Perrier’s Grand Siècle No 26.
Some years ago, the American wine critic, Robert Parker, dubbed Henri Giraud as “the greatest Champagne you’ve never heard of”. Ken Gargett takes a closer look.
Non-vintage champagnes were consider second tier to their vintage superstars, but that’s now changed. Ken Gargett takes a look at the history of non-vintage champages and shares some of his favorites.
Denis has said of the 2015, that it “expresses more of the soul of a Bollinger millésimé than any other year. More opulent, more powerful, it exalts Pinot Noir. Uplifted by maturation in wooden casks, this champagne reveals the characteristics of an exceptional year.”
The Louis Roederer Collection, current release being the 244 is one of the great buys in Champagne today, but it is also so much more. Chef de Cave Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon is at the forefront of what can only be seen as a seismic change in the way champagne operates, especially regarding their non-vintage wines.
None of these three champagnes are considered as prestige releases – for Taittinger, that would be their brilliant Comtes de Champagne – and consequently they are priced well below, each coming in at around one-third of the price of Comtes. You can’t go wrong. They are all beautiful champagnes and will reward drinking now or time in the cellar.
For champagne lovers, Ken Gargett recommends taking a look at the Lallier range. You might not be getting in right on the ground floor, but awfully close. And you’ll never regret it.
In Ken Gargett’s opinion, Billecart-Salmon’s Cuvee Nicolas François is a great champagne, whatever the vintage, but from 2008, it is transcendent. The champagne is of a gleaming appearance, like cut crystal. One sniff and it is obvious we are dealing with something that is wonderfully complex, elegant, still fresh and impeccably balanced.