2012 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvée

[MLipton]

originally posted by fatboy:

1. lilbert.

Ooh! Even available stateside.

2. when it comes to actually enjoying bubbles, don't diss the idea of a well-made coupe. at least until you've examined the matter with an open mind. i honestly love them.

fb.

Now that might rank as the most provocative statement made on this bored in quite some time. My problem with performing that experiment is that I’m not at all sure what you consider “well-made.” I have some fancy antique ones, etched glass and all, but are they well made? I honestly haven’t a clue.

Mark Lipton

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:

originally posted by MLipton:
Given your known fondness for Chablis on the young side, I’d think Blanc de Blancs without much toast in the nose would be your best bet.
Mark Lipton

where is he going to find a BdB in the Aube, that has the Chablis soil?

I had to ask.

Lassaigne? V&S Blanc d’Argile? Neither is quite Jim’s style IMO, though.

Mark Lipton

 

[Florida Jim]

originally posted by fatboy:

originally posted by MLipton:
... Chablis on the young side ... Champagne-swilling denizens
Mark Lipton

1. lilbert.

2. when it comes to actually enjoying bubbles, don't diss the idea of a well-made coupe. at least until you've examined the matter with an open mind. i honestly love them.

fb.

I need a little more - what is coupe?
Thanks, jim

 

[Tristan Welles]

I am assuming the coupe in question refers to the glass that was the fashionable choice for drinking champagne. I tend to agree that one shouldn't get hung up to much on which glass to use. Champagne is too much fun; if you want to appreciate the bead and the color, a stylish flute is nice, if aroma is your game that night, go with a bowl. If you want to imagine you've just stepped out of Le Temps Retrouvé, you can wander into a bar and order 'une coupe de champagne, s'il vous plaît.'

Also, one type of champagne, or perhaps better called a subset, was not listed. That of using a base vintage as the main part of the blend, or sometimes it is the entire cépage. It can be useful knowledge.

Interesting discussion above about from which house to drink tête de cuvée and from which to drink NV. For example, I like Diebolt-Vallois' NV better than Fleur de Passion, which never seems quite focused to me.

 

[Michael Lewis]

originally posted by MLipton:
And I’ll also put in a plug for sparkling Gringet from Ayze. Dom. Belluard is the best known producer.

Unfortunately, Dom Belluard died recently. I am not sure what is happening with the estate - does anyone know?

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by Florida Jim:

originally posted by fatboy:

originally posted by MLipton:
... Chablis on the young side ... Champagne-swilling denizens
Mark Lipton

1. lilbert.

2. when it comes to actually enjoying bubbles, don't diss the idea of a well-made coupe. at least until you've examined the matter with an open mind. i honestly love them.

fb.

I need a little more - what is coupe?
Thanks, jim

Since everybody is too recherché to answer Jim's question with information, a coupe is the champagne glass that was fashionable before the flute. It is that wide, round glass that the prisoner's in Koestler's Darkness at Noon was referring to when he said "breasts like champagne glasses."

 

[Pavel Tchichikov]

originally posted by Tristan Welles:
if you want to appreciate the bead and the color, a stylish flute is nice,

perhaps this is implied, but the pleasures of experiencing the bead in a flute are not only visual

 

[fatboy]

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by fatboy:.

2. when it comes to actually enjoying bubbles, don't diss the idea of a well-made coupe. at least until you've examined the matter with an open mind. i honestly love them.

Now that might rank as the most provocative statement made on this bored in quite some time. My problem with performing that experiment is that I’m not at all sure what you consider “well-made.” I have some fancy antique ones, etched glass and all, but are they well made? I honestly haven’t a clue.

Mark Lipton

by well made, i merely meant thin glass rendered into non clown shapes. most of the coupes i encountered in teh early years -- the things they used to sell teh coupes of champagne in in brasseries in france -- were made of inch thick soviet era glass.

fwiw, it was fancy antique ones (etched glass and all, that i use for cocktails) that got me started. i had been buying some of the new style minimal intervention extra brut riesling sekts (e.g. ones made by ulli stein and gernot kollman among others), but couldn't find a glass that didn't make them feel somewhat closed in and clumsy / rustic as actual drinks. then one day i tossed some into a "cocktail coupe" and eureka.

all of which prompted me to first pick up some modern coupes that were actually made for teh fain wain, and then explore further. i still use a universal glass for some fizzes, and even the odd riedel flute when the occasion demands, but empirically, i have been surprised to discover just how often i find myself reaching for a coupe when i pop the cork on champagne. there are some extra textural things i appreciate from fizz in coupes, and the aromatic difference in comparison to a flute is stark. (in teh fatcave, we even have different coupes for chardonnay vs. pinot heavy cuvees, but this is surely overkill).

fb.

 

[fatboy]

originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:

originally posted by Tristan Welles:
if you want to appreciate the bead and the color, a stylish flute is nice,

perhaps this is implied, but the pleasures of experiencing the bead in a flute are not only visual

or one could get a laser etched coupe.

not that i mind teh comrades drinking their hooch out of test tubes. let a hundred flowers bloom!

fb.

 

[fatboy]

originally posted by Tristan Welles:

Interesting discussion above about from which house to drink tête de cuvée and from which to drink NV. For example, I like Diebolt-Vallois' NV better than Fleur de Passion, which never seems quite focused to me.

the prestige nv or the basic? if the former, i'd be tempted to agree. shades of the three bears?

fb.

 

[Pavel Tchichikov]

originally posted by fatboy:

originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:

originally posted by Tristan Welles:
if you want to appreciate the bead and the color, a stylish flute is nice,

perhaps this is implied, but the pleasures of experiencing the bead in a flute are not only visual

or one could get a laser etched coupe.

not that i mind teh comrades drinking their hooch out of test tubes. let a hundred flowers bloom!

fb.

i am just old enough to be able to report that the choice of stemware should have been the least of concerns where well-being of comrades was concerned. Particularly those who had access to test tubes, and by extension all sorts of substances in liquid state.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by fatboy:
(in teh fatcave, we even have different coupes for chardonnay vs. pinot heavy cuvees, but this is surely overkill)

When you have different coupes for pinot blanc, then you're into overkill territory.

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

originally posted by Florida Jim:

originally posted by fatboy:

originally posted by MLipton:
... Chablis on the young side ... Champagne-swilling denizens
Mark Lipton

1. lilbert.

2. when it comes to actually enjoying bubbles, don't diss the idea of a well-made coupe. at least until you've examined the matter with an open mind. i honestly love them.

fb.

I need a little more - what is coupe?
Thanks, jim

Since everybody is too recherché to answer Jim's question with information, a coupe is the champagne glass that was fashionable before the flute. It is that wide, round glass that the prisoner's in Koestler's Darkness at Noon was referring to when he said "breasts like champagne glasses."

The apocryphal lore is that the coupe was shaped from a mold made of Marie Antoinette's breast (one of them, I guess), but, whatever.

If I'm drinking Champagne as an aperitif, I employ a white wine glass (Zalto, as it happens, which have been available locally at discounted pricing); if as a meal wine, a Bordeaux glass. Champagne is nothing if not versatile.

There was noise years ago on another board about the phenomenal improvement in Champagne flavor-aroma from using a glass that looked a bit like an upside down drop of water (as falling from a faucet), but I can't remember the name. Tempted though I was, I can barely bring myself to pay $100 for a bottle of wine every once in a while, let alone a glass. Anyway, I'm clumsy and prone to break things.

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

originally posted by Florida Jim:

originally posted by fatboy:

originally posted by MLipton:
... Chablis on the young side ... Champagne-swilling denizens
Mark Lipton

1. lilbert.

2. when it comes to actually enjoying bubbles, don't diss the idea of a well-made coupe. at least until you've examined the matter with an open mind. i honestly love them.

fb.

I need a little more - what is coupe?
Thanks, jim

Since everybody is too recherché to answer Jim's question with information, a coupe is the champagne glass that was fashionable before the flute. It is that wide, round glass that the prisoner's in Koestler's Darkness at Noon was referring to when he said "breasts like champagne glasses."

The apocryphal lore is that the coupe was shaped from a mold made of Marie Antoinette's breast (one of them, I guess), but, whatever.

No doubt a rumor started during the restoration when the Comte de Sangbu said to the Duc de Mangechair, "Have you noticed, mon cher, that these coupe's resemble the left breast of the sainted Queen Marie in her youth" and the Duc de Mangechair replied, "I'll drink to that. Bertrand, throw another peasant on the fire, it's getting chilly in here."

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

I understand the glasses used to serve Champagne at the White House are called 'coupes d'etat.'

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by fatboy:

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by fatboy:.

2. when it comes to actually enjoying bubbles, don't diss the idea of a well-made coupe. at least until you've examined the matter with an open mind. i honestly love them.

Now that might rank as the most provocative statement made on this bored in quite some time. My problem with performing that experiment is that I’m not at all sure what you consider “well-made.” I have some fancy antique ones, etched glass and all, but are they well made? I honestly haven’t a clue.

Mark Lipton

by well made, i merely meant thin glass rendered into non clown shapes. most of the coupes i encountered in teh early years -- the things they used to sell teh coupes of champagne in in brasseries in france -- were made of inch thick soviet era glass.

fwiw, it was fancy antique ones (etched glass and all, that i use for cocktails) that got me started. i had been buying some of the new style minimal intervention extra brut riesling sekts (e.g. ones made by ulli stein and gernot kollman among others), but couldn't find a glass that didn't make them feel somewhat closed in and clumsy / rustic as actual drinks. then one day i tossed some into a "cocktail coupe" and eureka.

all of which prompted me to first pick up some modern coupes that were actually made for teh fain wain, and then explore further. i still use a universal glass for some fizzes, and even the odd riedel flute when the occasion demands, but empirically, i have been surprised to discover just how often i find myself reaching for a coupe when i pop the cork on champagne. there are some extra textural things i appreciate from fizz in coupes, and the aromatic difference in comparison to a flute is stark. (in teh fatcave, we even have different coupes for chardonnay vs. pinot heavy cuvees, but this is surely overkill).

fb.

Thanks for the explanation. I think our antiques are suitable for the experiment. I shall, in the interests of scientific enquiry, give it a whirl soon.

Mark Lipton
Experimentalist to the bone

 

[scottreiner]

I need a little more - what is coupe?
Thanks, jim

For me, the coupe is the only way I want to drink a martini.

 

[Oswaldo Costa]

This thread beggeth not the question: then what is a little deuce coupe?

 

[Pavel Tchichikov]

you'd think the physicists and avid popular mechanics readers here would be all over the laser etched coupe vs the flute where the bead is concerned.

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

Shhh.