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- 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, Bergres, Oger, Cramant, Oiry and Cumieres.
Chardonnay makes up most of their holdings.
Pascal and his father, Pierre.
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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
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- 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 Siecle" 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 :
$34.99 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 Siecle 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, Mot's Dom Perignon might be your
best bet. If people can "taste" and appreciate the wine, you might want to
splurge for the Grand Siecle.
- 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 $105) SALE $79.99
LAURENT PERRIER GRAND SIECLE (list $240) SALE $119.99
LAURENT PERRIER ROSÉ CUVÉE ALEXANDRA
SALE $169.99
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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 Remy-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 $55 list SALE
$39.99
1985 Champagne "Charlie" List $150 SALE
$129.99
1990 Blanc de Millénaires $99.99
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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.
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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-anne.' 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.
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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!
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- 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 $39.99
Cuvée Pierre Moncuit-Delos (Non vintage) Brut $23.99 (375ml)
Cuvée Pierre Moncuit-Delos (Non vintage) Magnum $83.99
1999 Pierre Moncuit Vintage Brut $52.99
2002 Pierre Moncuit Vintage Brut SALE $69.99
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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
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- 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 $32.99
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VOIRIN JUMEL
 This is a
small domaine with stories dating back to 1945 as the turning points for
each side of the family.
In that year, Uncle Jean Voirin's baskets of fruit were rejected by some
large Champagne house and he decided he's start making his own
bubbly. Meanwhile, Monsieur Jumel married Mademoiselle Richomme
who had a small parcel of vines. Jumel was more involved in the
trucking business but ended up selling his modest fleet of wagons and buying
more vineyards.
Fast forward a few years and you have Monsieur Gilles Voirin from the grand
cru village of Chouilly marrying Mademoiselle Françoise Jumel.
Since Champagne tradition calls for the bride to remain in her hometown, the
winery is situated in Cramant, not Chouilly. This is a few kilometers
south of Epernay.
 Cramant
is one of 17 villages designated as a "grand cru" site and the chalky
soils are well-suited to Chardonnay.
We have the Premier Cru bottling from Voirin-Jumel, a wine that's made entirely
of Chardonnay (you'll notice the "Blanc de Blancs" designation on the
label), with fruit coming from their estate vineyards. Voirin-Jumel grows
all its grapes. They do not purchase fruit from neighboring growers.
The wine is fresh and quite dry. There's a touch of a fragrance
reminiscent of white flowers and a mildly yeasty note. It's medium-bodied
and thoroughly delicious.
The wine is very reasonably-priced, too.
Currently in stock: VOIRIN-JUMEL Premier Cru
Blanc de Blancs SALE $29.99
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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.
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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.
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- 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.
We used to stock most of their offerings, but the prices have escalated to
the point where they are less interesting.
When the wines return to more sensible price levels, we'll re-stock them.
NON VINTAGE BRUT PREMIÈRE CUVÉE Sold Out
 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.
More
Champagnes....? Come this way.
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