This is the only vintage bottling I got from Fatcork.com and I am excited to try it. This comes from the village of Berru in the Montagne de Reims. Berru is a special village for me. Last year at the Champagne Conference the Jacques Picard “Art de Vigne” 2005, also from Berru, was my favorite Champagne. Showing incredible depth and layers upon layers of complexity, it HAD to be good to be my favorite out of the hundreds of Champagnes I tried that weekend. Ironically this bottle has a similar color too… Bottle has been opened and poured for over ten minutes in three glasses. Here we go…
Ready to rock.
Oooo weee…. Right away this is jumping out of the glass with juicy gala apples and a light dust of chalk. With some swirling notes of chocolate and toffee appear. This smells like a developed Champagne. Coming from the 2002 vintage, one would expect a very high quality Champagne but I think so far this is over performing. I remember tasting this vintage early on… it was soft and lightly fragrant on the nose. Very reductive and shy. This is another story so far, even the color is a deep gold.
On the palate this is very interesting. Showing bright fruit up front with notes of those gala apples again and a light prickly minerality that opens up to a very nice creamy mid palate (literally like drinking half and half). This is very forward on the palate, just like on the nose. Strong flavors that aren’t hiding behind anything, very tasty. This is much more fruity and direct than the Perrott from last week. Where that Champagne was subtle and refined, this is showing it’s maturity and strength of vintage with its muscular build and elegant complexity. The finish is pure class with minerals holding tight until the end. A lovely trend of the fatcork.com wines, awesome finishes. (that’s what she said, hey now!)
In conclusion, this wine is really fantastic and deserves to be reckoned with. Earlier today I had the pleasure of trying some very high end Champagnes from a big name Champagne house that I won’t mention (your only clue is: It was one, now it’s three). One of them was a rare (hint hint) 2002 Champagne in limited production, and to be hones the Adam-Jaeger kicks its butt. In all honesty I don’t like comparing apples to orange juice, but the dramatic difference in taste and apparent quality is enough to win by a landslide. Even if I am comparing a Blanc de Blanc to a vintage blended Champagne. These last few sips are showing intensity, grip, even some emotion? Well maybe not, but light tannins for sure. Awesome stuff. This is an affordable AWESOME vintage Champagne that will outshine other vintage Champagnes that cost 2 to 3 times as much. BUY THIS AND DRINK OR HOLD.
Although it is a bit austere, I still highly recommend it. Interesting that it is an RC designated Champagne. Tomorrow I am off to San Francisco and I plan on visiting the Bubble Lounge to have bubbles. Hopefully I will have some cool stuff to report back on…
Rafael Sanchez
Sommelier
POP Champage Bar
Chef Ray enjoying the vintage bubbly.
Caryn, one of our servers, enjoying it until the last drop.