Our July tastings were of Champagne, and we took a different approach to our normal tastings.
Tim explained that because Champagne has been so brilliantly marketed by the big houses (Grand Marques), our mental perceptions tend to over-rule our sensory ones, and knowing something is famous and expensive tends to make us think it is high quality and better than something cheaper.
To ensure we suffered no such adulteration of our judgement, all but one of the wines were presented blind. We started with a quick resumé of tasting technique, using Tim’s ‘house fizz’, the Boutillez Guer Tradition Non Vintage, made by a small grower in Villers-Marmery, from grapes grown in Premier Cru vineyards. Tim was keen we appreciated the fineness and persistency of the mousse and nature of bubbles (purposeful or aimless?), the generally pale lemonny colour, the biscuityness of the aromas, flavour and fresnhess, mouthfeel and length of finish. All the wines were Non Vintage, so blends of current and previous years’ base wines, and therefore what should be a consistent expression of the particular house’s style.
We then tasted six wines blind, with a helpful list telling us the wines we were choosing from. We also answered some wine sayings trivia questions. Luckily no prizes were available, and it’s unlikely any would have been awarded. Nevertheless it was great fun, and it was great to actually concentrate on the wines themselves and to perceive differences between them. As always the Britannia did a fabulous job of food, over both evenings.
Details and pricing are on the Wines we have tasted page.
For those who are interested, I will now reveal how badly I got things wrong on the night I tasted (despite having been looking at the bottles all day at home) ….
I actually knew which wine was the Joseph Perrier Brut, a classic mix of broadly equal amounts of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier, because it was the only wine in half bottles, so I should have been at an advantage, with only 5 wines to consider/guess at.
The only one I actually got right was the Pierre Peters Cuvée de Réserve Grand Cru, Blanc de Blancs – the most expensive wine of the evening. Lovely complex but delicate aromas, a nutty, biscuity, textured mouthfeel.
Our cheapest wine: Lidl’s £13.99 Champagne Carpentier had rich, ripe fruit, lovely texture and a lot of biscuityness. I put it down as the Devaux (£40-50), from the Aube region in the south.
Annoyingly, I got the Lallier Grand Cru Grand Réserve completely wrong, and I love Lallier wines, I’m particularly fond of their rosé, and think they are incredibly good value (£35/bottle). Perhaps too good value – tasted blind I thought it was pleasant, but nominated it as the Lidl. Oh dear.
I thought the Sophie Baron Grand Réserve was so lovely it must be the Lallier, turns out I was foxed by the florality and fruitiness of its Meunier dominant blend.
Which left me making the Devaux into the Sophie Baron, my excuse being that both were red fruit dominant.
