"If I don't make mistakes, I never learn." Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon's words are hardly original but still they took me by surprise. I don't think of the cellar master of Champagne Louis Roederer as one who makes mistakes, least of all with Cristal, which is what he was talking about, as he hosted (virtually) the launch of the 2014 vintage. To be clear, he didn't catalogue actual mistakes or cite any particular vintage of Cristal. The comment came in the context of the percenta

If Louis Roederer Cristal 2008 was "the Cristal of Cristals", in the memorable words of chef de cave Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon at the launch of the first two Vinothèque vintages in 2018, what does that make the 2013 he is now introducing? "2008-plus". A little later he describes it as "the Cristal of Cristalsss" and "50 per cent chalk, 50 per cent sunshine", whereas 2012, he says, was a little more on the sunshine side and 2008 was more on the soil [chalk] side. The 2013 is cer

With the 2007 vintage the disgorgement date has returned to the front label If I'm ever asked who from history I would choose as my guests for a fictional dinner party, Lily Bollinger would be one of them – not just because I hope she would bring some Bollinger to drink but because she sounds as if she was fun. Formidable, too, perhaps, judging by her business acumen, but fun all the same. It's not just the too often quoted (and here we go again): "I drink Champagne when I'm

The 2012 vintage in Champagne was expected to be a disaster – as bad as 1984, and that's saying something. There was winter frost, spring frost, torrential downpours, a poor flowering, hail and cool, cloudy summer days. Inevitably, growers battled against mildew and the threat of botrytis. Then in mid-August the skies cleared, the sun came out, temperatures rose and it stayed like that with scarcely a break until the harvest in mid-September – late by today's standards. By th

I was going to call this A Taste of Dom Pérignon Rosé 2006 and Moët Grand Vintage Collection 2002 but, reader, I drank them, not by myself and not all at once, but these were not samples I tasted and then passed on to neighbours/friends/family. You wouldn't have done either. They were sent for Moët Hennessy's inspired 'Hidden Gems' Zoom tasting of five Champagnes: Veuve Clicquot Grande Dame 2008, Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2007, Krug Rosé 24ème édition and the two above. The

Caroline Fiot at Ruinart HQ in Reims, one of Ruinart's team of three winemakers The text of this article was first published in The World of Fine Wine issue 63 It was Caroline Fiot, one of Champagne’s brightest young winemakers, who was dispatched to London recently to introduce the latest release of Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs alongside its predecessor: thus 2007, the 25th vintage since the debut 1959, and 2006. Neither year is regarded as anywhere near a five-star vintage f

Writing my annual Festive Champagne Guide is, as you can imagine, no hardship, not least because I have tasted everything in it recently. As always it has been difficult to whittle down the numbers, but one way is to exclude most of the Champagnes recommended in last year's guide (however painful some exclusions are) and those featured in my blogs on Drappier and Bruno Paillard. Even whittled down, there's a spectrum of styles, ages, producers and retailers, presented in asce

D : Z is one of two new launches for Champagne Bruno Paillard. The other is the 2009 Assemblage, a vintage that Alice Paillard admits isn't an obvious choice for a house that has built its reputation on elegance in an uncompromisingly dry style. Making a non-dosage Champagne, i.e. without sugar added after disgorgement, is never easy. In fact, decades ago Bruno Paillard – the only man, incidentally, who has a Champagne house in his own name because he created it – experimente

We're there: my Champagne picks for Christmas, New Year and every other kind of festivity, whittled down with difficulty to what I hope is a manageable number, but I'm posting this before The Wine Gang's annual Ultimate Champagne Evening, so I may well add one or more top-end bottles next week. I've largely steered away from Champagnes featured in the last two years' round-ups, which means missing out some with particular regret, but it spans the spectrum of styles, producers

No one could accuse Champagne Charles Heidsieck of rushing things or releasing vintages too frequently, not so far anyway. The new vintage of its top cuvée, Blanc des Millénaires, was unveiled in London three weeks ago: the 2004 is only the fifth in the 35 years since the debut 1983 Blanc des Millénaires ousted the previous cuvée, Champagne Charlie, in 1993 and it follows the magnificent 1995 which has been on the market for a decade. There's been no vintage of Millénaires re

Olivier Krug was in town last week for the launch of the 2004 vintage Krug. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a spare seat in the house – a gem of a Georgian house in edgy Whitechapel, as it happens. Olivier charms everyone and a Krug tasting isn’t something you miss without a very good reason (death throes, exile, that sort of thing). I must say I do find that a Krug tasting at 10.30 in the morning puts a shine on the rest of the day. The rest of the week, in fact. The tasting tu

The Bollinger Lunch was, as you can imagine, a rather nice fixture in the calendar until it was dropped a couple of years ago. Searching for the positive, the only thing you could say was, well, who’s got time for lunches like that anyway? The answer was given by the wine writers who warmly welcomed the invitation to this year’s revival of the lunch at The Beaumont in London last week. I found I had the time. The latest vintage from Bollinger, La Grande Année 2007, served at

Dom Pérignon 2000, P2, P1 and P1 Rosé and winemaker Vincent Chaperon in London Dom Pérignon has just launched its P2 2000 Champagne. I tasted it in London alongside two earlier releases with winemaker Vincent Chaperon, but before we get into the tasting notes I owe you a bit of background – unless you know all about the ‘P’ and the plénitudes, in which case you can skip the next paragraph. Richard Geoffroy, the long-standing chef de cave with whom Vincent Chaperon has worked

45 years old and still in perfect health Drinking history: there are times when only a well-worn phrase will do. I’ve just had one of those times with, as you can see from the photo, a 45-year-old Pinot Blanc. You may be able to see that it’s a Spätlese and be able to make out other clues to its origins but, as I’m (all too obviously) going to tell you, there are no prizes for identification. Before I go on, there are two important things to say. First, I wouldn’t waste your

Chef de cave Nicolas Jaeger who still ferments everything in oak barrels Alfred Gratien must be one of the least visited of Champagne aficionados’ favourite houses, which is a slightly more tortuous way of saying something I’ve said before: every wine writer I can think of loves Alfred Gratien Champagne, but (and this I haven’t said before) it’s not a house that’s been on many itineraries. This summer, after decades of visiting producers of every size and persuasion from mult

The occasion was a dinner at the Hotel Particulier in Reims, the Roederer family home, in May 2016, hosted by Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, winemaker and executive vice president of Champagne Louis Roederer. Dinner, thank goodness, means drinking not just tasting. For the full menu, see below. For more on the Roederer philosophy and practice, see my blog The Golden Age of Champagne Roederer Cristal 2009 Disgorged October 2015. Dosage 8g/l. 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay. To be rel

Vins Clairs from the great 2015 vintage, some of which will go into Cristal in the current, new Golden Age of Champagne Rather a quaint title don’t you think, ‘The Golden Age of Champagne’? Attention grabbing, too, I hope of course, but – and sorry if this comes as a disappointment – L’Age d’Or isn’t now. Or, at least, the vintages we’re drinking now are not from what one of Champagne’s most widely admired and respected winemakers, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, calls Champagne’s g