Champagne Part 1-Fliniaux, Lehay, Assiette Champenoise
Genevieve and I joined Fred Schilling, Ian Westcott and Jim Cooper in Champagne for a week or serious testing at some of the leading and up-and-coming producers of Champagne. We had an absolutely amazing week of great wine, food and truly rare insights into the people that make it.
Champagne background
Champagne is the most successful viticultural region in world and yet its many grands crus, sub-regions, vinification techniques and styles of wine are rarely discussed.
When compared to a region like the Côte d’Or, Champagne is a massive, diverse region spread across a huge area. There are some 15,000 or so growers and producers in Champagne. The goal of the week was to visit some of those which are setting the quality and philosophical agenda in Champagne.
Regions of Champagne
Champagne consists of five major regions. The Montagne de Reims is a highly prized region near the major town of Champagne, Reims (pronounced with a French nasal sound, ‘rannz’). This region is largely planted to Pinor Noir. It’s a huge region, encompassing villages including Aÿ (Bollinger), Bouzy (Paul Bara) and Ambonnay (Egly-Ouriet).
Slopes at Bouzy.
Dark skies over the Montagne de Reims.
The Vallée de la Marne, through which the Marne river runs, is largely planted to Pinot Meunier. The town of Épernay (Moët et Chandon, Pol Roger) is the major town here. We stayed a gîte in the Vallée, owned by Laherte Frères.
From the Vallée de la Marne toward the Côte de Blancs
South of Épernay is the famous Côte des Blancs, which contains famous towns such as Cramant (Diebolt-Vallois, Gimmonet, Larmandier-Bernier), Avize (de Sousa, Selosse) and Le Mesnil sur Oger (Salon, Pierre Peters, also the location of Clos du Mesnil). As the name suggests, this region is planted with Chardonnay. South of here is the Côte de Sezanne, and south of that the Aube. These regions allow great ripeness in greats and are important locations for larger producers.
A stained glass window in the church at Le Mesnil sur Oger, celebrating the harvest of 1865
Styles of Champagne, nomenclature
Blanc de Blancs – Chardonnay based Champagne
Blanc de Noirs – A white Champagne made from red grapes (generally Pinor Noir)
Disgorgement – The bubbles in Champagne comes from a second fermentation in bottle. The contact with yeast cells also adds considerable complexity to the wine. Most people see it as adding aromas and flavours reminiscent of baking bread (i.e., yeast), earth, wood and mushrooms (after extended aging).
Dosage – After disgorgement, many Champagnes receive a dose of liquor to add a little sugar (or some times, quite a lot!) as well as impact some distinct characteristics to the wine. This is kind of like cheating but Champagne would not be the same with out it.
Zero dosage/non-dosé – wines made with out dosage
Residual sugar – the number of grams per litre of sugar remaining in the wine after disgorgement and addition of dosage
Recent vintages
These are my opinions on some recent vintages.
2007 – very difficult growing season, due to an extremely warm April and May and a very cold summer. Maturity was a problem but good producers will have made good wine to add to their reserves (for making non-vintage wines).
2006 – a good year across the region
2005 – hot atypical vintage, maybe too hot for some
2004 – a superb vintage
2003 – a bizarre vintage with all the catastrophes that a Champagne grower fears: the nearly unprecedented “canicule” or heat wave which saw forty degree days for months; the devastating frost of the beginning of april which saw some producers lose everything and most lose more than 50% of their crop; on top of this, there was hail at times, humidity at others. Totally bizarre.
2002 – generally very good. Some producers have made simply amazing wines; others had difficulties with over ripeness.
2001 – very difficult for most producers. Some producers have made a vintage wine but most have not.
2000 – difficult for many. Over ripeness was a major issue.
1999 – good quality wines in most areas but few stunning wines
1998 – many good quality wines made
1997 – a vintage many struggled with but there were successes in many regions
1996 – one of the greatest vintages on record
Day 1
Regis Fliniaux – Aÿ
Regis Fliniaux is a small producer in Aÿ. In person, he’s more like a stout Burgundian: a cheeky smile, piercing eyes. His wines are very keenly priced and what he’s done with 2003 is just superb.
Our patron.
2005 Rosé Saignée – no dosage, 100% Pinot Noir Aged six months in oak barrels, this wine had lots of (fairly pleasant) oak aromas, mixed with dried red berries on the nose. The palate had good acidity to balance the rich fruit but the dryness of the oak maturation showed on the finish. Needs 6 months to harmonise further. Nice, should be popular but not my style.
2006 Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Lots of yeasty aromas, still very young. Underneath, gooseberry, grass, quite fine. Aged in a mixture of new and old oak for 5 months, but seemingly primarily old as it does not show too much oak influence. Lower than expected acidity but still well structured. The young vines, in their 20s, show in the lack of complexity and minerality. Still, a good wine.
The vigorous bead of the Blanc de Blancs
2003 Signataires – 50% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay, Grand Cru Presented in an old fashion style with rope holding the cork in place. It was amazing, later in the day, to see Regis’ work table, with the rope and scissors next to a bunch of bottles. Six packs come with a set of special scissors to remove the rope in a showy kind of way. The wine itself: very vigorous bead, fine bubbles. Structured, very dry, needs a lot of time. Smokey, round, plush, complex: some characteristics of Aÿ despite the year but also lots of characteristics of 2003 itself, mostly in the form of burnt citrus fruits. It seems that 2003 suited the rounder style of Aÿ.
Cutting the string on the Signataires
The Gang with Regis. Can you tell who the local is (hint, the guy wearing a t-shirt at 2 degrees Celsius.
Lunch – Bistro Le 7, Epernay
A great bistro in Epernay, marrying old and new. Great list of producers at reasonable prices. The ris de veau (veal sweetbreads) were very good. We took two bottles of Jacquesson Avize 1997 which I found a bit boring but others at lunch liked.
We were joined by Christian from Luxembourg and his two “Burgundy groupies”, one from the Netherlands and the other from Luxembourg also.
The close but comfortable table at Le 7.
Part of the gang after lunch: Gen, Christian, Stephanie, myself, Corrine, Jim
Benoît Lehay – Bouzy
Bouzy is renown for making very ripe (by Champagne standards), fruity, forward Pinot Noir. They even produce some still rouge. Lehay is an up and coming producer that the locals have an eye on. He farms bio-dynamic, he’s young and energetic and definitely a person to watch.
Benoît Lehay disgorging a bottle for us
Nature (non-dosé)
Rich, ripe red berry fruits and mouth puckering acidity giving superb structure. A 100% Pinot Noir, a blend of 2002, 2003 and 2004. Some time in barrel has added complexity and given roundness.
Nature (dosage 8 grams)
Musk, marsh mellow, vanilla. A very pronounced, powerful nose. Younger wine than the previous, made up of 2003, 2004 and 2005. Good structure and length. Maybe a little sweet though with the rich fruit.
Blanc de Noirs Prestige
A blend of 2004 and 2005, this wine showed very rich, musky, floral pinot fruit. Almost like a table wine in aroma. Benoît says that 2004 gives the wine finesse while 2005 gives it power. The mousse is fine, vigorous, luxurious. The 8 gram dosage is still noticeable but more suited to this wine.
Fleur de Terroir
Lifted nose of ripe Pinot Noir but actually 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir. No malolactic fermentation undertaken and you can really feel it in the refreshing, green apple like acidity. Seven months on lees and passage in barrique has given some toasty vanilla aromas. The finish is long and dry, thanks to a little tannin remaining in the wine. A very interesting, more challenging style of Champagne. Only 2600 bottles made.
Rosé Brut
Bright pink/red colour, deeper than most rosés thanks to 20 hour maceration. Strawberries and cream nose. Beautiful structure to the palate with lots of raw pinot ripeness, thanks to the fruit being exclusively from the ripe 2005 vintage. Clean style, made for summer barbeques.
At this point we headed for the cave to taste some older bottles and some on lees. I didn’t take notes as these are unfinished wines.
Down to the cave
Needless to say, the style will remain consistent. Richer wines, powerful ones, with length and structure. Very different to the wines many Champagne drinkers are used to.
Christian really liked what he saw at Lehay
Dinner – Assiette de Champenoise
We decided to join Christian and the Burgundy groupies for dinner at this famous restaurant near Reims. Christian felt that the restaurant warranted three stars and that it would probably be elevated in the 2008 guide. We took a small, intimate room for the group. It was classically decorated and comfortable. Of course, everyone being a wine expert there was much back and forth with the list:
Ian temporarily steals the wine list
The first hiccup of the evening was that the restaurant didn’t have enough menus for us to all have one each. After 15 minutes, these were tracked down and we began to order. I liked the menu: three set courses of four to six courses each and a simple à la carte menu of about nine options. I really like it when chefs choose to focus on a few things rather than very many. I took the menu retour aux sources – the return to the sources menu. Others ordered à la carte.
The small but appealing menu
The amuse-bouche were well executed but didn’t show much creativity
Being in Champagne, we decided that it would be the best opener. We took three bottles. The first was an Egly-Ouriet Blanc de Noirs. I really like this Champagne. I think it is one of the best Blanc de Noirs made, after Selosse’s Contraste. This bottle proved a theory I had: this wine needs extended cellaring, at least 4 years after disgorgement. The wine had a rich sandalwood nose with fabulous structure that finished slightly tannic. A great food wine. Sadly, it was took young to show it’s best I think.
A bottle of Jacquesson Avize 1996 left me as cold as the previous one drunk seven months earlier. It had some of the structure of 1996 but it is boring to my taste. It may just need time to unwind.
The bottle of Egly-Ouriet Vieillissement Prolongé was fantastic. It had a bouquet of almost unparalleled complexity with coconut, raspberry, vanilla, old oak barrels. You could see at once the primary and secondary character of the wine. Absolutely captivating and with superb length and refinement.
I took these Champagnes with three courses. The first was a seafood stock and cucumber foam:
I quite like the iodine character of shell fish but I felt that there was took much in this dish. I overpowered the Champagnes.
The next course was Noix Saint Jacques (scallops) three ways:
These were very well executed and worked well with the Champagne.
Others took delicious looking cray fish dishes:
Next came Oursin Royal (sea urchin roe custard)
Under the foam was a jelly like substance made from urchin stock, in which was suspended urchin roe. It was a confronting dish which capture the raw, powerful, wild flavour of sea urchin roe. It was maybe too confronting for the wines I was drinking: and they were powerful wines!
The performance of the wines from Egly-Ouriet was impressive
At this point, I was confused. The first dish had been salty and iodic. The second sweet. The first, very salty and confronting. The progression lacked harmony. It was at this point that things got a little upset with the service too. We’d asked for two reds: a Guigal La Turque 1999 and a Bouchard Père et Fils La Romanée 1997. We asked that the La Turque be decanted immediately. It wasn’t. The sommelier continued to bicker with us about the wine for some time, simply not following our instructions. The wine was not decanted, rather up ended, sediment and all, into glasses. Christian was just about having a fit. It may seem that I am unnecessarily upset by these things but when the prices and reputation are of three star level (read $600 per head for dinner) expectations are very high. What the best French restaurants — and almost no one can do it better — is to make everything just flow perfectly, so that the six hours you spend there are just magical. This was not the case at Assiette Champenoise.
To top things off, the Guigal was presented to me as I took a piece of bass, which is clearly an inappropriate dish to have with it, especially when there was Champagne remaining:
The bass was served with braised root vegetables. I don’t know if it was just the mood in the room at the time, but this dish just didn’t work for me.
Unfortunately, the next dish was also a disaster:
Roast pigeon — where’s the pigeon?
Part of the reason I wanted the Guigal was that I’d had La Turque with pigeon before it was perfection. This pigeon was in a kind of Chinese roast pork glace — not mentioned on the label. It was sweet and bitter. Awful in fact. If it wasn’t for the fact that I wanted to leave, I would have sent it back.
The Guigal La Turque 1999 was a rich, tannic, powerful wine. Obviously too young but hard to ignore for the price on the list. Blend, I’d be tempted to say it was Grange. The heady raspberry and cassis aroma, blended with sweet oak aromas was very familiar. Needs considerable more time in the cellar, maybe forever.
With the cheese we took the Bouchard Père et Fils La Romanée 1997. This was a superb wine, brilliant for the year. The indescribable mix of powerful confidence and spicy complexity that lovers of Vosne-Romanée will be familiar with was all there. The palate was balanced, long, elegant. It went some way to claiming the night back.
The dessert courses were playful, reminiscent of Troisgros and Gagnaire:
Fairy floss
Ginger bread and marsh mellow
Chocolate cigar
Chocolate mousse
Chocolate torte
Chocolate eclair and pistachio (noticing a theme?)
All dishes were executed with undeniable skill. Sadly, this was not a two star let alone three star experience. These kind of restaurants are not just about food but rather the harmony of the experience — and there were several grating moments over the evening, both in terms of service and food.
Thus ended the first day of two weeks traveling in Champagne, Alsace, Jura and Bourgogne.
