Some Bubblies We Like:

AGRAPART et FILS

The Agrapart family has been making Champagne since, at least, 1894.  The firm has about 9.5 hectares which it farms.  Vineyard holdings are scattered in several Grand Cru places, primarily in Avize

An old label from a previous generation.

Brothers Fabrice and Pascal Agrapart also own vineyards in Avenay, Bergères, Oger, Cramant, Oiry and Cumieres.  Chardonnay makes up most of their holdings.  


Pascal and his father, Pierre.

 

 

With some 320,000 bottles in the cellars, Fabrice and Pascal sell but about 8,000 cases of Champagne annually.  The aging of their non-vintage dated Brut is about three years, something virtually all the big firms claim to do.  Reality and claims are often two different issues.  We've tasted the Agrapart's Champagnes for a number of years and have found the wines to be improving each year.  I recall their wine, a few years ago, tasting a bit one dimensional and have been delighted to note the progress as their wines have become more "complete" and better balanced.  

Please remember the Agrapart's Champagne is made of Chardonnay, not red grapes.  This accounts for the elegance and finesse in their wines.  The base wines undergo a malolactic fermentation to give them a bit of richness.  

Pascal Agrapart says they even do some lees stirring (battonage) to gain greater complexity in the base wine.  Typically for the Brut "Blanc de Blancs," approximately one-third of the wine is aged in wood.  

You'll have trouble finding a better value in Champagne, especially when you consider the Agrapart's is a "Grand Cru" wine!  




We currently have some great half bottles of the non-vintage Brut, along with full bottles and magnums.  Magnums are a great way to go if you're serving 6 or more people, since the wine shows a bit more toastiness thanks to the larger surface area in the bottle of spent yeast following the secondary fermentation.

 

 

 

 

 

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Fabrice and Pascal are assisting their father and grandfather in the disgorging of the Champagnes.  Years ago.

Currently in stock:  Agrapart Blanc de Blancs $36.99  (750ml)
Agrapart Blanc de Blancs Magnums:  SALE $79.99 
Agrapart Blanc de Blancs 375ml   SALE $21.99

 

LAURENT PERRIER

This company has been called Laurent-Perrier since 1887, when the widow of owner Eugene Laurent added her maiden name to the enterprise.  She built up quite a business, but World War I put a big damper on the company.  The firm was later run by a sister of the Lansons (another famous Champagne name), Marie-Louise de Nonancourt.  Her son Maurice was the heir apparent, but he died in a German deportation camp during World War II.  His brother Bernard de Nonancourt took over the firm after the war and he's built this company into an industry leader, producing about 7 million bottles annually.  He is still active.  

The firm is located in Tours-sur-Marne, about 8 miles east of Epernay.  In our tastings of top-drawer Champagnes, Laurent Perrier's "Grand Siècle" has typically been in first or second place (competing with Krug), well ahead of the famous prestigious cuvées such as Dom Perignon or Roederer's Cristal.  Laurent-Perrier's Brut Non-Vintage is a terrific wine, crisp, fresh and very mildly toasty.  It is lighter than Bollinger or Roederer...it's in the quality range of Veuve Clicquot, for example. 
We currently are offering this at a special price :  $29.99 a bottle.  Don't miss it!


I know the Rosé Champagnes have no significant following here in the U.S.  A few, like Billecart-Salmon enjoy a certain cache.  Laurent Perrier takes a different approach from most:  they actually make a "rosé" the old-fashioned way, putting the Pinot Noir skins in contact with the juice.  Most firms simply make a white cuvée and add a bit of red juice. 
Perhaps that's why this wine is head and shoulders above the pack.  The unusual bottle dates to the time of Henry IV.  Hank would appreciate this 100% Pinot Noir Champagne, made from such prestigious crus as Ambonnay, Bouzy and Louvois, along with seven others.   It is moderately toasty, thanks to about four years' aging on the spent yeast.   The color is bright pink and the aromas and flavors are unmistakably Pinot Noir.   The wine is quite dry, too.  $65 is the suggested price, but we offer it for $59.99.  At the moment.

The Revue du Vin de France (Nov. 1999) called this "one of the most sumptuous bottles of the tasting {their line-up included Bollinger 1985 RD, Krug Grande Cuvée, Clicquot 1990 La Grande Dame, Salon 1988 and Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé)...the wine displays multiple nuances...a marvel."

The Cuvée Grand Siècle has been vintage-dated  and non-vintage (multi-vintage, if you will) formats.  We currently have the latter.   Fabulous, frankly.  We think the current bottling is based upon the 1996 vintage with some reserve wines.   Creamy, toasty, rich and thoroughly "deluxe."  Steely dry and elegant.   If you need a "name" to impress your guests, Moët's Dom Perignon might be your best bet.  If people can "taste" and appreciate the wine, you might want to splurge for the Grand Siècle. 

Currently in stock:  LAURENT PERRIER NV BRUT (list $44)  SALE $34.99
Half bottles: $19.99  Magnums (list $90) SALE $72.99
LAURENT PERRIER BRUT ROSÉ (list $75) SALE $62.99
LAURENT PERRIER GRAND SIÉCLE (list $135) SALE $79.99
LAURENT PERRIER ROSÈ CUVÉE ALEXANDRA  SALE $169.99

CHARLES HEIDSIECK

"Chuck" used to come to the U.S. regularly to sell the Champagne that had his name.  The firm was founded in 1851 and things started off nicely for Heidsieck and his brother-in-law partner Ernest Henriot.  He wound up in jail in New Orleans when Unionists found a letter from French manufacturers with offers to supply clothing to the Confederate army.   That took some fizz out of his Champagne!  The firm managed to survive and Charles got out of jail after a four month-stint.  It was run by the Heidsiecks until 1976 when an Henriot took over.  In 1985 the company was sold to the Rémy-Martin organization which owned Krug and Piper-Heidsieck. 

I hadn't found the wines to be anything special until being served a bottle by Wine-Meister Josef Bauer (one of the German "Rodgau Wine Tasting Team" members...Mrs. Josef, Uli Bauer, is a fabulous kitchen magician!) back in the late 1980s or early 1990s.  When I returned to San Francisco, I purchased a bottle, curious to see if the wine they sold here was anything like what I tasted at Schloss Bauer.   Sure enough, the wine was magnificent.  We immediately organized a blind-tasting of Champagnes to better evaluate the quality of the field. (All in the name of research, of course!)  The Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve won the tasting.   Hands down!  In the succeeding years, Heidsieck continued to succeed and it has not lost a tasting since.  I think it's won four or five blind-tastings we've organized.

Many credit the improvement in quality to their late  Chef de Caves, Daniel Thibault.  The key to their success, in my view, is their insistence on patiently aging the wine until it's ready.  We always find Charles Heidsieck to be bigger, creamier and toastier than the rest. 

Since all the Champagne firms claim to mature their "non-vintage" Brut Champagnes for three years, Charles Heidsieck is challenging them to "put up or shut up."   They  launched their "mis en cave" program, noting the year (on the label) in which the wine was "put in the cellar."  Generally speaking, 60% of the wine comes from the year previous to that noted on this label.  The remaining 40% is comprised of reserve wines (usually several years older...perhaps six).   Heidsieck then notes on the bottle the time of disgorgement. 

They seem to have figured out marketing this to the average bear is too difficult, so most recently they've placed the "Mis en Cave" notation on the back label along with the date of cellaring.  The front label now read, simply, Brut Réserve.  The current wine is "Mis en Cave" in 2001, meaning the fruit is predominantly from the 2000 vintage.  And while some of their competitors have been raising prices (Bollinger and Clicquot, to name a pair), Charles Heidsieck's is still most reasonably priced at just $29.99! 

Currently in stock:  BRUT RÉSERVE  $40 list SALE $29.99
1985 Champagne "Charlie" List $150  SALE $129.99
1990 Blanc de Millénaires $99.99

PIERRE MONCUIT

The Champagnes of Pierre Moncuit are not terribly well-known in the United States, though the firm has great name recognition in Europe amongst connoisseurs.

Since most American bubbly buyers are blinded by Clicquot's "orange" label Champagne, the notion of buying something off-the-beaten path is foreign to most folks.  They're trying to impress their guests and the guests usually know you're spending money when you put a bottle of Clicquot on the table.

By contrast, our friends in Europe, who all know what a bottle of Clicquot costs, seem to be a more adventuresome bunch and they often have Champagnes from little-known, family-operated firms.  

 

Moncuit Champagnes come from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, a top "cru" in the Côte des Blancs.  Moncuit is one of the best growers and most prominent names in town.  In this area they cultivate about 15 hectares of vineyards, farming another 5 in nearby Sézanne.   Brother and sister Yves and Nicole run the place and they are quite a team.


An old photo displayed in their tasting room.




While many houses offer a "non-vintage" wine which usually has a certain percentage of older "reserve" wine, Moncuit prefers to makes its wines entirely from a single year's crop.   Never mind that they are free to blend older wine.  Nicole speaks of everything "mono."  "We make a 'mono cru,' 'mono-cépage' and our Champagne is a 'mono-année.'  We like to preserve the character of the vintage and the terroir, so our wine comes exclusively from one year.  We don't blend in any 'reserve' wine."

The wines tend to be rather steely-edged, which we like in Champagne.  The dosage is minimal and the overall   I was interested to learn Nicole likes her base wines to undergo a malolactic fermentation which has the effect of softening the wine.  Moncuit Champagnes don't really display the elements of this particular fermentation and they're still quite crisp and nicely tangy.  Of course, the wine you taste from Moncuit this year is different from the one you might buy in 12 months.  (( Keep in mind most of the large Champagne firms try to blend their wines to be uniformly consistent from bottling to bottling. ))

The winery has about one kilometer of cellar tunnels below the courtyard in Le Mesnil.  Yves estimated they have about half a million bottles aging in these galleries.

 

One of their cellar crew was busy riddling bottles when we cruised through the winery.

They have some ancient bottles from their father's day.  Dad used to sell mostly to negociants when he started in 1928.  Nicole took over in 1982.

1938 vintage Champagne.

They still have a few bottles from Pierre Moncuit's first vintage, 1928!

 

We tasted some very fine wines on our visit to Moncuit.  And the wines arrive here in San Francisco in top form, too.

The basic bottling is Cuvée Pierre Moncuit-Delos, this latter name being their mother's maiden name.  It's a grand cru Champagne showing a nice toasty note and it's quite dry, crisp and beautifully balanced.  It's not as long on the finish as their more costly bottlings, but you'll find it top-notch compared to most other non-vintage Champagnes.  

The 1999 vintage Brut, another "Grand Cru" wine, has recently arrived.  This is even more steely-edged than the non-vintage wine.  Since it's recently disgorged, I find the nose a bit quiet, but the wine is more expressive on the palate.  There's a toasty element to the flavors and the wine is, of course, quite dry.  Lengthy and elegant, we enjoy the brioche and caramel notes in this fine Champagne.  I suspect it will become more complex over the next couple of years, though it's very fine right now.    Good value, too.

Currently in stock:  Cuvée Pierre Moncuit-Delos (Non vintage) Brut $35.99
1999 Pierre Moncuit Vintage Brut  $42.99

POL ROGER

This old, family-run Champagne house has a history intertwined with British prime minister Winston Churchill.  He had just laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1944 in Paris, before heading over to the just re-opened British Embassy for vittles and vino.  Churchill was seated beside Madame Odette Pol-Roger and was so charmed, he is said to have asked that she be invited to dine anytime he was in France.  She is said to have been equally charmed, sending Sir Winston bottles of 1928 Pol Roger on his birthday every year until they finally ran out!
Churchill named one of his stable of race horses "Pol Roger" and the filly actually won a number of races!  
Madame Pol Roger was one of the few to be invited to Sir Winston's funeral in 1965.  The firm of Pol Roger later launched its top cuvée as "Cuvée Winston Churchill."  
Churchill had quoted Napoleon: "I cannot live without Champagne.  In victory I deserve it, and in defeat I need it!"

We can order the full range of Champagnes of Pol Roger.  Presently we have a rather fine non-vintaged Brut in the shop.  The importer claims its an equal blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.  Quite obviously the wine has a bit of age to it, showing a lovely toasty, bready quality.  I'd say it's not quite as intense in that character as Bollinger or Charles Heidsieck, but more toasty than Clicquot, Mumm and Moet.  Very fine.

Prices are a bit high, so these Champagnes require a few days notice...
As of September 2006, non-vintage Brut is about $40, while 1998 vintage Brut goes for $75.  There is usually a bottle, or two, of the Winston Churchill bottling, their top-of-the-line wine.

Currently in stock:  Non-vintage Brut (list $45) Sold Out
1998 Brut Sold Out
1995 Cuvée Winston Churchill  Sale $174.99

RUELLE-PERTOIS

Owning 3 hectares of vines in Moussy and 3 in nearby Chouilly, the small Ruelle-Pertois winery has managed to stay below the radar screen of most Champagne drinkers.  When you make 40,000 (or so) bottles annually, you're producing a half day's work at the big houses such as Mumm or Moet!

Michel Ruelle married Martine Pertois, hence the name Ruelle-Pertois.  Michel has been making Champagne since 1970, so he's not exactly a new kid on the block, though he is new to the San Francisco market.  

His wines are imported by our pal Charles Neal who was introduced to Ruelle-Pertois by his friends the Lafitte's at Domaine Boingnères, famous Armagnac producers in the South-West.  In fact, when we visited Boingnères, "Mom," Marguerite Lafitte insisted upon opening a second bottle of this Champagne, even knowing we were late for our next rendezvous!  Charles, who's no dummy, contacted Ruelle and now imports tiny quantities of very fine Champagne.  

The photo at left is of Michel "disgorging" a bottle of their excellent 1996 vintage to serve at lunch that day!  This is, essentially, how they did it in the "old days."  

I like the really appley and toasty notes of their Champagne.  And if you'll please notice, this is a "premier cru" wine and it carries a most enticing price tag.  It is one we highly recommend for its quality and price.  And if you can buy some extra bottles for aging, you will be handsomely rewarded...I recently had a bottle we'd saved for a year and this really grew significantly more complex with the year in bottle!

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE RUELLE-PERTOIS PHOTOS

Currently in stock: Non-Vintage Grand Cru "Blanc de Blancs" Champagne SALE $28.99

BRUNO PAILLARD

Back in the 1980s, a fellow named Bruno Paillard decided to launch his own negociant firm in Champagne.  His family had years of experience in the Champagne trade, but starting your own house was something most unusual.

So, of course, the locals talked about what crazy guy this Bruno Paillard was.  Out of his mind!

Or, perhaps, sly like a fox?

His Champagne arrived in San Francisco and we organized a blind-tasting of Champagnes.  And, lo and behold!  The first place wine was that of Bruno Paillard!!!

The local importer was emboldened by the results of our tasting, telling all who would listen that Bruno Paillard's Brut Champagne bested a field of the best competitors.

After selling their Champagnes through a failed Sonoma import company, Paillard's daughter embarked on importing the family wines...but she and her winemaking hubby moved back to France and now they're imported by a national firm.  

Bruno is something of a "bad boy" in Champagne.  He's been an outspoken critic of some time-honored, curious practices in the region.  And he's a bit maniacal in terms of being driven to produce the best.  

While his original wines were purchased, Paillard today has a facility which can handle the primary fermentation, bottling, aging and, finally, disgorging the Champagnes.

Since he buys grapes from various regions, Paillard, like most quality-oriented winemakers, prefers the grapes be pressed as close to the vineyard as possible.  Otherwise, you risk 'staining' the wine with a bumpy ride over hill and dale.

They label their wines as Première Cuvée and this is one of Paillard's challenges to others and one feature which sets him apart from many in Champagne.  Having visited numerous Champagne houses, I can't think of any which admit to using much in the way of "press wine."  Virtually everyone claims to sell off his or her press wines, using only the first press juice (which is said to be more fine, elegant and of the best quality).  

I have wondered who would be using all this press wine that must certainly be generated.  There has got to be an ocean of it someplace, yet everyone claims to not use it, but that their neighbors all use press juice.

So Paillard notes on the label "Première Cuvée" as a pledge of actually, yes, really, indeed, we DO USE ONLY the first press juice.  

The other major mantra for this house is the date of disgorgement.   They note on the back label the month and year, so the consumer has, perhaps, a chance of finding a bottle from the same batch of production.  I was invited to taste three flights of various Bruno Paillard Champagnes with different disgorging dates.  The differences in the wines is striking and only someone with a lead palate and a cold would not have been able to discern the differences in the various wines.

This has often been a point of personal preference.  I know, from visiting many Champagne houses, that there has often been the idea that the Champagnes are best when they are freshly disgorged.  But I have noted that many British wine authorities take issue with this notion, preferring a bit of "time on the cork."  And I have seen for myself that I often prefer wines which are a year or two or three removed from disgorging.

Paillard has a personal preference for "Wines of elegance and wines which age well.  They should have the purity of the fruit which comes from our unique, near-the-edge-of-the northern-growing area for wine."  

Taking a small jab at some Champagne producers, Monsieur Paillard says "We like to do what we tell and tell what we do."  

While most Champagne firms load their delivery trucks with freshly disgorged Champagne, Bruno Paillard's Champagnes are disgorged, have a minimal amount of dosage added to them (Bruno Paillard's Brut, for example, has but 9 grams of sugar per liter, while most Brut Champagne has 14 grams...he credits the first press juice with allowing for a lower dosage) and, once corked and fitted with a wire hood, the bottles are returned to the cellar for additional aging.  

Having seen "first palate" the effects of such aging, I think two, three or four years of additional "cellaring" really allows the Champagne to blossom to the maximum level of complexity.  I guess I am suggesting to our customers that they buy some extra bottles and stash them for a couple of years.

This may be more technical information than most people really care to know, but at the risk of sending you face down onto your computer keyboard, Paillard explains that once the Champagne has been disgorged "We have two newcomers in the bottle: oxygen and a tiny bit of sugar from the dosage.  This creates a new form of 'aging,' a sort of micro-oxygenation and a sort of micro-madeirization whereby the sugar 'oxidizes' and contributes a note similar to that of Madeira."

Paillard has been a big fan of artist labels.  While we appreciate the visual art he puts on his various vintaged Champagnes, we are even more attracted to the art in the bottle.

 

Paillard, further, now uses a proprietary bottle.  While these are hard to stack in a bin, one feature of interest with them: Paillard MUST make his own Champagne.  It is not possible to buy un-labeled bottles of Champagne from the various companies which supply private labels or allow a big negociant company to augment its production as they have been able to do (remember the Millennium madness a few years ago?).  Paillard, with his own proprietary bottle, therefore assures the consumer that his wine is NOT something onto which he's slapped his label.

Here are my notes on their various Champagnes:

NON VINTAGE BRUT PREMIÈRE CUVÉE  List $47 SALE $41.99 (750ml)        $84.99 (magnum)
Our 750ml bottles were disgorged in April of 2003.  This wine displays a very mildly toasty quality with a hint of fresh apple.  It's dry, crisp and very "fine" on the palate.  Nice acidity and yet with a bit of texture and roundness without relying on sweetness for this.  
The half bottles were disgorged in 2001 and this wine shows a shade more toastiness on the nose.  You really get a sort of grilled bread element.  It's dry and creamy on the palate.  Crisp...dry...very fine.

NON-VINTAGE ROSÉ BRUT PREMIÈRE CUVÉE   Sold Out
Disgorged in July of 2003, the Paillard Rosé is made of the first press juice exclusively.  They use a variety of Pinot Noir wines here: clear juice of the Pinot, some percentage vinified with the skins for a brief period to have some color and a bit of wine that has been made as a red wine (the town of Bouzy is famed for its red wine of Pinot Noir, known as Bouzy Rouge).  Eighty-five percent of the wine is Pinot Noir.  Then Paillard incorporates about 15% Chardonnay in an effort to add a high-toned note and "lighten" the wine (or give it a more elegant feel).  There's a hint of berry here on the nose and palate.   This is not as berryish as the Laurent Perrier Rosé, but a shade more intense than Billecart-Salmon.   And it is quite dry.

CHARDONNAY RÉSERVE PRIVÉE  Sold Out
They don't make very much of this wine and it's a bit of a throw-back to an old style of Champagne: a Crémant.  This is a less aggressively fizzy wine which Paillard says is really ideal for a Chardonnay Champagne.  The currently available wine was disgorged back in July of 1999 (!) and it's got a lovely aroma with hints of apples and almonds.  There's a touch of a citrus element on the palate and a lightly creamy texture.  

1996 Vintage BRUT CHAMPAGNE  (List $75)  SALE  $49.99
The 1996 vintage is one which is remarkable.  It's difficult to imagine the Champagnes being a step above normal, but they are. 
If you made a 1996 which is only as good as your 1995, then either your 1995 was off the charts or you should look for a different line of work.

Will post the 'stats' on the 1996 once I have learned the particulars...check back...

More Champagnes....?  Come this way.

Wine Tasting Today

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Last modified: May 13, 2008