The Vinorati Blog

Thanks so much to Sam of Becks & Posh for organizing the 25th Wine Blogging Wednesday and picking Champagne! as the theme.

We were lucky in two ways for the Wine Blogging Wednesday’s Champagne theme. First: we were in Champagne a few weeks ago where we picked up some interesting wines and second: Frederic’s brother and his girlfriend, who are both winemakers in Bordeaux, were visiting us for the weekend. Hence they picked out a couple of bottles, we invited a few more friends and we made an evening of Champagne, appetizers (thanks to Picard!), oysters and goat cheese. I wonder if all this could be tax deductable?

We had the pleasure of tasting two non-vintage Champagnes one from Devaux and the other by Andre/Jacques Beaufort, a 1999 Ruinart, a 1998 Legras and a 1989 Jacques Beaufort. It turned out to be a great selection of wines. I didn’t dislike any of them, but we all had our favourites.

D de Devaux non-vintage 7.5/10; 28€
This was a clean fresh wine that would be a perfect start to a meal - palate-cleansing and refreshing.

• overall: delicious, clean, great aperitif
• appearance: pale lemon yellow
• nose: yeasty, lemon, citrus
• mouth: fine bubbles, nice acid, balanced, fresh, light
• eat with oysters, goat cheese

Andre Beaufort Brut Grand Cru Ambonnay Reserve non-vintage 8.0/10; 25€
As expected from a Jacques Beaufort wine, this Champagne had great character/personality and complexity. I loved it.

• beautiful, great character, interesting
• pale gold, straw
• green apple, nutty, celery
• citrus, lovely, delicious, medium length, light acid, creamy, smooth
• eat with ?

R&L Legras Brut Grand Cru 1998 6.5/10; 25€
This was my least favourite wine of the evening. It was a little too buttery for my tastes. On the other hand it went very well with the oysters!

• great character, interesting
• pale lemon yellow
• yeasty, bell pepper, butter
• short, light
• delicious with oysters! goat cheese

R de Ruinart Brut 1999 7.0/10; 44€
This was a nice wine, marred by slight notes of reduction on the nose. Fortunately the mouth was a very impressive improvement over the nose, and the reductive notes did diminish with time.

• crisp, bright
• pale
• yogurt, lemon, musky
• light, fresh, very nice, elegant
• delicious with chevre, oysters

Jacques Beaufort Grand Reserve Brut 1989 8.5/10; 44€
The highlight of the evening for me. Amazingly “young” wine for it’s 17(!) years. It was disgorged in May 2005 so 16 of those years were on it’s lees, which makes all the difference.

• beautiful, tasty, complex
• golden
• green apple, tropical fruit, fresh
• smooth, bite at end, great length
• delicious with aged goat cheese

Frederic’s brother brought a selection of goat cheeses, since that’s his most recent wine-food pairing revelation and I’m a complete convert. The aged chevre was a bit of a challenge but was perfect with the 1989 Beaufort. Of course the oysters were a classic but excellent accompaniment, particularly with the Legras. It’s such a treat to find new ways to enjoy les vins petillants de Champagne.