Very impressed with this, the current release of the Ruinart Blanc de Blancs. It’s immediately accessible, and obviously delicious, but it also has a serious side to it. Very skilful blending and winemaking here. Not cheap, at around £50 street price, but really fine and beautifully packaged, too (in clear glass, so preferably try to find a boxed product that won’t have suffered light strike. Champagne Ruinart Blanc de Blancs NV France 12.5% alcohol This is beautiful stuff. There’s some lovely richness with citrus, pear and white peach with a really nice brightness and crispness. The core … [Read More...]

Bruno Paillard has said that he does not intend to re-think his decision to resign in protest as the head of a commission set up to protect the Champagne name around the world. Protected names form a central facet of EU wine law.News broke last week that Bruno Paillard has quit as president of the Champagne bureau’s ‘appellation protection committee’ after 17 years, following a row with Champagne Palmer. Paillard, a leading figure in the region as chairman and CEO of Lanson-BCC and owner of Champagne Bruno Paillard, was quoted in French newspaper l’Union as saying that co-operative-owned Palmer had betrayed Champagne … [Read More...]

A real treat to drink this tonight after a lovely boat ride and swim in Muskoka cottage country. It’s mature and delicious. Thank you Steven Campbell for opening this. Champagne Salon Le Mesnil 1985 France Golden colour. Lovely aromas of toast, nuts, honey and apples with a faint cheesiness. The palate is intense and concentrated with a lovely crystalline citrus core, which expands into more toast, apple pie and honeycomb notes. This has great intensity and depth, and a lovely acid core. Mature but still very much alive, with gentle fizziness and a vinous character. 96/100 Find this wine with wine-searcher.com [Read More...]

Cedric Bouchard is one of the new generation of star growers in Champagne. Based in the Côte des Bar in the Aube, in the south of Champagne, he only began making wine in 2000, from 1.4 hectares of vines, but has since added his father’s 1.5 hectares to this holding. Initially the wines he made from his father’s plots were labelled ‘Inflorescence’, but since 2000 they have all been under the Roses de Jeanne label. The approach is very much a terroir-influenced one, and the plots used are indicated on a map on the back label. Farming is organic and all wines are single-site, single-variety and single-vintage (although the vintage… [Read More...]