Celebration Wine

Today is a day to celebrate for a number of reasons. So, we are hopping on our plane and heading out. The flight to Paris wonderful. Catching some wonderful tailwinds, we arrived far sooner than we ever expected. But, our driver was waiting for us nevertheless.

We're headed east today and just barely to the north into Champagne. And, we are not going to drink just any Champagne. We are going for the best of the best. We're going for the ones that the critics said that you just haven't lived if you haven't experienced them.

We begin our day in the town of Epernay. There, in 1849, a young wine merchant by the name of Pol Roger started a champagnerie. By his early adulthood, Winston Churchill considered it his favorite beverage of all. Today, Queen Elizabeth has made it the Champagne enjoyed at Buckingham Palace. And, after Churchill's death, the Roger family designated a new Champagne, a Cuvee made from predominatly their finest Pinot Noir grapes and only in the best vintages as Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill.

2008 was an incredible year in Champagne. And, the 2008 Sir Winston Churchill, produced in magnums only as is the case with all Cuvees Winston Churchill is considered to have been the finest produced.

It was a miracle vintage. In the spring, there was an unusual hard freeze. Most of the summer was quite dank and overcast. For many, the vintage was going to be written off and scrapped as no good grapes could be produced. And, then there was a miracle. The weather turned for the better. The champenois, having learned from 1996, a similar weather year in Champagne, allowed the grapes to fully ripen and harvested quite late. Grapes were then left on lees for several additional years beyond what was done in 1996.

The result for this bottling is an incredibly balanced yet very rich wine brimming with minerality and racy acidity on opening the bottle, but gently calming after just a few minutes of rest.

Leaving Pol Roger, we are headed to Reims to visit the house of Louis Roederer. Here we are going to enjoy another 2008 vintage wine, this time Cristal. 

Cristal was created in the 1870s for Czar Alexander (I do not recall if Alexander had a number after his name) as a prestige cuvee. Despite that the wine had been created specifically for him, he always feared assassination, particularly through sabotage of his beloved Champagne. So, he had a special lead crystal bottle created for his favorite wine. And, rather than having a significant punt (the indentation in a bottle of wine, considered necessary by most champenois to handle the extreme pressure in the bottle) as Champagne bottles do traditionally, this bottle was created without a punt so that no explosives could be inserted into what would have been the punt.

This wine was bottle-aged for 8 full years before disgorgement producing a highly expressive wine worthy of the fabulous 2008 vintage.

Leaving Roederer, we move across Reims to Krug. Now owned as are many other luxury brands by LVMH Moet Hennessey -- SE Louis Vuitton, the Krug family still is involved in the winemaking process nearly 180 years after Joseph Krug founded this Champagnerie. Their classic of all their bottles is generally considered the 1996 Clos du Mesnil.

In the early 1970s, the Krug family purchased a small Chardonnay vineyard in the center of Mesnil-sur-Oger. Within that vineyard was a small walled off area. The Krug family says that the combination of the walled off area and being in the center of a village rather than a remote farming area results in a very unique micro-climate, perfect for growing Chardonnay to be used in their ultimate Champagne.

Much like 2008, 1996 was a year whose growing season started with the similar feeeze to 2008 and a fairly unpleasant summer. For many champenois, this was not as fine a vintage as the 2008 as they had to learn how to deal with such conditions, but for Krug, they got it right.

They produced a Champagne with unusual flavors and richness full of savory notes to go with the traditional candied fruits of this bottling. The Krug family says that it it the micro-climate we alluded to earlier that gives this wine the smoke, mushrooms and coffee characteristics so unique to a great Krug Clos de Mesnil and none are as legnedary as the 1996.

Finally, we end at Moet & Chandon to taste their 2002 Dom Perignon. The vintage was unlike the other ones we discussed here, showing that wine indeed remains mysterious. In 2002 in Champagne, the spring was seemingly perfect -- warm and dry. In summer, there was lots of sunshine with occasional cloudy days and some rain. And, when late summer hit, the weather was miraculous, just perfect allowing vignerons to extend the harvest so that both the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay could fully ripen with harvesting occurring largely in the second half of September.

Critics have hailed this wine as being incredibly full-bodied and rich, generous in its fruit and having a finsh that lasts for as long as the taster may live. 

What a wonderful way to celebrate ...