"May All Your Pain be Champagne"

I

Ian Fitzsimmons

Ian Fitzsimmons
This was a wedding toast by an old boss, who was an interesting but damaged man.

I guess we're all damaged in some way.

But I digress.

I'm starting to dabble in Champagne - idle hands, etc. Tasted a very striking Lallier GC zero-dosage last week, and experimented even more recently with an oxidative Dufour wine made mostly of Pinot Blanc. Also enjoyed a non-dosage Fourny with delicious, chalky intensity. So perhaps brut nature is how I roll. But I recall a thoroughly civilized Laherte Freres Ultradition Rose, and other dosed fizzes of interest in the more distant past.

My question to the board is: what's the story on aging champagnes? I gather dosage is a sine qua non; but what are some favorites to age, how long do you hold 'em, and how do they develop in the cellar?

I've read a bit, of course, but am curious about experiences among the WD crowd.

Cheers.
 
When I was still drinking bubbly not too long ago, I had the 1964 Dom Perignon en Magnum. And it was a revelation.

Given my preference for evolved wines along with this tasting of Dom '64, an easy conclusion is that aging Champagne can be most rewarding.

. . . . . Pete
 
I'm a bit more skeptical now than I used to be. Started cellaring grower champagnes well over a decade ago so I have a nice stash of stuff that should give some payoff for the bottle age. But it's been kind of surprising how many of my notes are like, "tastes exactly the same as it did 10 years ago, but not as fizzy."
 
Tonight I just opened a bottle of Coutier NV Grand Cru BdB that I bought in 1999. Believed to be 1996 base. Delicious. Fresh but great creamy custardy complex finish that only comes with bottle age.
 
Ah, '96. We opened a Pol Roger magnum of vintage (not Churchill) '96 a few years ago, and it was somewhat like what Keith said. Except that I liked the taste of the wine with less fizz.

Similar experience with aged Huet petillant, albeit that is Chenin-based; but the wine takes on interesting dimensions, as it sheds its bubbly negligée, a bit at a time.

The Dom is above my pay grade. However, the anecdote aptly illustrates the point.
 
Krug provides an interesting window into what aged Champagne is all about. On the basis of that exposure, we've shied away from aging our bubbles, preferring instead the non-dosé fizz that you've been grooving on. As SFJoe said to us long ago, "This is the only Chardonnay I drink." (in reference to a Larmandier-Bernier Terre de Vertus). All roads lead to SFJoe, I guess.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MarkS:
Don't the bubbles disappear with age? And isn't this the purpose, the being of Champagne?
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Sometimes they do, but you never WANT them to. The best mature Champagnes I've had still had plenty of vigor in the fizz department. Hence all the pricey late-disgorgement programs.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:

Tasted a very striking Lallier GC zero-dosage last week, and experimented even more recently with an oxidative Dufour wine made mostly of Pinot Blanc.
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I've been really enjoying Dufour's wines. Was this Le Champ du Clos? I had a bottle of the '15 in Paris over the summer. I don't know that I would have described it as oxidative, but it definitely had more texture than I would have expected from a BdB.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I'm a bit more skeptical now than I used to be. Started cellaring grower champagnes well over a decade ago so I have a nice stash of stuff that should give some payoff for the bottle age. But it's been kind of surprising how many of my notes are like, "tastes exactly the same as it did 10 years ago, but not as fizzy."
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that's very interesting to hear as the grower Champagnes are, of course, mostly ones that don't have a track record for aging.

I'm actively pursuing a policy of aging Comte de Champagne with absolutely no worries that I will regret it.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I'm a bit more skeptical now than I used to be. Started cellaring grower champagnes well over a decade ago so I have a nice stash of stuff that should give some payoff for the bottle age. But it's been kind of surprising how many of my notes are like, "tastes exactly the same as it did 10 years ago, but not as fizzy."
Click to expand...

Which wines as I've been pleasantly surprised?
 
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