Vilmart & Cie Blend – Champagne

- Vilmart & Cie Champagne Coeur De Cuvee 2001 750ml – Champagne

Champagne

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Vilmart & Cie Champagne Coeur De Cuvee 2001 750ml

Vilmart & Cie Blend – Champagne

- Vilmart & Cie Champagne Grand Cellier D’or 2003 750ml – Champagne

Champagne

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Vilmart & Cie Champagne Grand Cellier D’or 2003 750ml

Vilmart & Cie Blend – Champagne

50% 2005 and 25% each of ‘04-’03. 70/30 blend of Chard/PN, aged 10 months in Foudres and disgorged 10/07. This wine continues getting better, amazingly. Maybe it’s the creamy 2005, but the grace and stylishness here are unprecedented, and there’s a seamlessness that used to take years to show. At this point it’s in the family of the vintage wines, though still with its signature flavors of saffron, brioche and lobster stock. – Vilmart & Cie Champagne Grand Cellier NV 750ml -

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Vilmart & Cie Champagne Grand Cellier NV 750ml

Vilmart & Cie Blend – Champagne

Disgorged 10/07 but will not be available until the end of 2008; it’s ‘05-’04, and to the extent it can be judged (in March ‘08) it’s cherry tobacco and BLTs on toasted dark bread; there’s some of the ‘04 grassiness but as always this is a meaty Rose with chewy length. – Vilmart & Cie Champagne Cuvee Rubis NV 750ml -

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Vilmart & Cie Champagne Cuvee Rubis NV 750ml

Varnier-Fanniere Blend – Champagne

65% 2003 & 35% 2002, disgorged 11/07; as always a single-site wine from the 69-year old Clos du Grand Pere in Avize, whose character just saturates this terroir-lover’s wine; this bottling is of course informed by the 2003; it’s suave, creamy and articulate; the ‘03 doesn’t seem spurious or overripe but instead conveys a solid old-vines palpable concentration; seductive and scary-easy to drink. – Varnier-fanniere Champagne Cuvee Saint Denis NV 750ml -

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Varnier-fanniere Champagne Cuvee Saint Denis NV 750ml

Varnier-Fanniere Blend – Champagne

70% 2005 and 30% 2004-this will change in October (‘08) to a 50-50 blend of 2006-2005; the current cuvee was disgorged 12/07; it’s the best yet of this sometimes-immature wine, which may have to do with the graciousness of 2005 fruit; in any case it’s rounder and fruitier than usual but still incisive and very long, with a thick graphite finish and ultra-fine apple. The 10 g.l. of RS is absolutely necessary – Varnier-fanniere Champagne Brut Grand Cru NV 750ml -

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Varnier-fanniere Champagne Brut Grand Cru NV 750ml

Rene Geoffroy Blend – Champagne

All 2004, 82% PN, 5% Meunier and 13% Chardonnay, 50% vinified in seasoned wood, disgorged 12/07. One of the best 2004s I’ve tasted; meaty Pinot Noir aromas mingle (or, ahem, commingle, as we now have a much more pretentious word available, though it means nothing different than plain-old mingle, and anyone who uses it can co-eat my shorts) with mirabelle, apple and saffron; the palate is soft and sheer, spicy and elegant, with long tertiary cling; there’s an embedded robustness of Pinot Noir in a matrix of grace and transparency. Sophisticated stuff. – Rene Geoffroy Champagne Empreinte Brut NV 750ml -

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Rene Geoffroy Champagne Empreinte Brut NV 750ml

Rene Geoffroy Blend – Champagne

This will come to be known as Empreinte, or Imprint,(KRG-12) (KRG-12H), and there’ll be two versions of it over the coming year. The currently available wine is all 2001; a light gauzy version of this customarily lavish creature, it’s almost an ether of Pinot Noir (which is 80% of the cuvee, with 20% Chardonnay) with all the essential fragrance it always has; in effect it’s the same note played in the next-higher register; it’s remarkably filigree for Pinot Noir. And then… there’s a 2002 which was disgorged 12/16/04 and which will be released in October and which, for the first time, contains some Meunier; the `02 Meunier was exceptional. 65% Pinot Noir, 20% Meunier and 15% Chardonnay-78% vinified in oak-10 g.l. dosage-and it’s appreciably fuller than the `01, with the complex euphoric fragrances of `02; the body is lithe and springy, and the effect is Spring-flower and mineral. I see a + in store with another 6-12 months on the cork. – Rene Geoffroy Champagne Empreinte Brut NV 375ml -

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Rene Geoffroy Champagne Empreinte Brut NV 375ml

Rene Geoffroy Blend – Champagne

Disgorged 12/07, and half-half ‘05-’04, and this cuvee continues to change, to become more studiedly serious. It’s down to 39% Meunier and up to 37% PN and 24% Chardonnay, with 12% vinified in seasoned wood; it’s cool and a little grassy in the ‘04 style; drier (8 grams RS) and less effusive than before, but the length is substantial; there’ll be more straw and hay when it fills out, but this departs from the easy succulent style of old. I still like it! – Rene Geoffroy Champagne Expression Brut NV 750ml -

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Rene Geoffroy Champagne Expression Brut NV 750ml

Rene Geoffroy Blend – Champagne

Year-in year-out this is the best value in this offering, and one of the best values in all of Champagne. Again all 2004, and for the first time this is 100% Chardonnay (though the label won’t say Blanc de Blancs); this is marvelous and unexpectedly so; it’s a little like Billiot’s Cuvee Laetitia without quite the power, but hay and mineral and grip and transparent intricacy. It comes from three climats, Les Chenes and La Montagne (26%) and Tourn-Midi (74%), the latter a bitch of steepness on pure cretaceous chalk with almost no topsoil. The wine is also cousin to Chiquet’s Blanc de Blancs d’A , though with less green-tea and more succulence. – Rene Geoffroy Champagne Cuvee Volupte NV 750ml -

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Rene Geoffroy Champagne Cuvee Volupte NV 750ml