Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 69

YEAR'S BEST CHAMPAGNES
its flavor, hinting at floral strawberries while
the core of wine centers on white notes of
ginger, apples and lemon. It's tight and firm,
yielding complexity as the flavors open with
air. This is all pinot noir from the grand cru
village of Verzenay. (Disgorged 7/14)

P H I L I P P O N N AT
Négociant-Manipulant in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ
(Vallée de la Marne); founded 1911; owns 234
acres: 185 acres under contract, 66% pinot
noir, 33% chardonnay; average vine age: 35
years; oldest vines: 65 years. Cellarmaster:
Thierry Garnier; Vignerons: Claude Laurent, Aurélia Jamain; 37,500 cases produced.
Imported by Banville Wine Merchants, NY
274147

94 | Philipponnat

90 | Ployez-Jacquemart

$47

Champagne Extra Quality Brut (Best Buy) ^
Laurence Ployez based this current release
on the 2013 vintage, working with fruit from
premier and grand cru villages in the Montagne de Reims and Côte des Blancs. Equal
parts chardonnay and meunier, with 20 percent pinot noir, it's tight and pale up front,
with a daikon-like rooty spice that builds
through the finish into bold intensity-flavors that would take on seared diver scallops.

FA B I E N N E P R I E

$110

2012 Champagne Extra Brut Blanc de
Noirs ^ This is pinot noir from Aÿ and Mareuilsur-Aÿ, part aged in stainless steel with some
malolactic conversion, part in barrels without malolactic. This wine excited me personally, having just spent some time in the vineyards of Aÿ this past summer. My notes read:
"Brisk, deep in tone. Wow, that's good wine.
Very Aÿ, very potent. Pink grapefruit without
any austerity." I share those notes because,
though I did not visit Philipponnat, and did
not have any way of knowing this wine was
from Aÿ, its flavors were tied directly to their
terroir in a recognizable way. While those flavors are driven by red berry fruitiness, the
wine smells and tastes of Champagne soil.
Remarkable. (Disgorged 9/18)
274173

92 | Philipponnat

noir; average vine age: 40 years; oldest vines:
65 years. Cellarmaster/Vigneron: Laurence
Ployez; 9,500 cases produced. Imported by
David Bowler Wines, NY
274018

$155

2008 Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée 1522
Extra Brut ^ Philipponnat farms the pinot noir
for this wine at Le Léon, a parcel between the
villages of Aÿ and Dizy where April le Philipponnat purchased vines in 1522. The balance
is chardonnay (42 percent) from Le Mesnilsur-Oger. A portion of the blend ferments
and ages in barrels, without malolactic, and
you might still find some apple-like malic
acidity in the wine's muscular structure. That
acidity is mouthwatering and tastes like fruit
even as it's youthful and tense. There's plenty
of richness to fill out that structure, giving
the wine a sense of restrained power. (Disgorged 8/18)

PLOYE Z-JACQUEMART
Négociant-Manipulant in Ludes (Montagne
de Reims); founded 1930; owns 9 acres: 55%
pinot meunier, 43% pinot noir, 2% chardonnay; purchasing from 25 acres: 50%
chardonnay, 30% pinot meunier, 20% pinot

Récoltant-Manipulant in Neuville-sur-Seine
(Côte des Bar); founded 1995; owns 17 acres:
70% pinot noir, 30% chardonnay; average
vine age: 25 years; oldest vines: 45 years. Cellarmaster: Philippe Narcy; Vigneron: Fabienne Prié; 3,000 cases produced. Imported
by Serge Doré Selections, Chappaqua, NY
274472

91 | Fabienne Prié

$50

Champagne Réserve Brut (Best Buy) ^ This
blends 75 percent pinot noir with chardonnay, and even though it goes through malolactic conversion, the creaminess and buttery
notes are equaled by a stony structure that
holds it firm. It's salty, earthy and rich, then
the flavors snap into place in the end, clean,
lasting and lively.

BERNARD REMY
Négociant-Manipulant in Allemant (Côte
de Sézanne); founded 1968; owns 25 acres:
65% chardonnay, 30% pinot noir, 5% pinot
meunier; average vine age: 25 years; oldest
vines: 45 years. Cellarmaster/Vigneron: Rudy
Remy; 17,000 cases produced. Imported by
Shiverick Imports, Los Angeles, CA
273896

91 | Bernard Remy

$44

Champagne Brut Rosé ^ This is a red-meat
rosé, with its fragrant and lusty red-berry
fruit and herbal notes. It's gentle but structured by chalky abrasion and the tannic feel
of fruit skin, like the skin of a red pear.
273894

91 | Bernard Remy

$43

Champagne Grand Cru à Allemant Brut
(Best Buy) ^ Tight at first, seemingly unforgiving in its armor of brisk acidity, this
opens into a wine that's all chalk savor and
red-berry gentleness. Firm and trim, it will
develop with a year in bottle.273895

89 | Bernard Remy

$35

Champagne Carte Blanche (Best Buy) ^
Scents of strawberries and green apples
infuse this wine's limestone acidity with pale
fruit. It's round, smoky and soft, an appealing apéritif.

ADRIEN RENOIR
Récoltant-Manipulant in Verzy (Montagne de Reims); founded 2015; owns 13.6
acres; oldest vines: 58 years. Cellarmaster/
Vigneron: Adrien Renoir; 1,667 cases produced. Imported by Grand Cru Selections, NY
273832

91 | Adrien Renoir

$95

2015 Champagne Grand Cru Verzy Lieu
Dit Les Epinettes Pinot Noir ^ From a parcel
in Verzy planted in 1971, this wine fermented
and aged in barrel, producing a Champagne
with the flavor of red-apple skins and a clean
line of lemon pith and chalk. The cool red
fruit tones took tastings editor Corey Warren to an apple orchard, "the first cold day
of the year, when it starts to smell like fall at
four p.m." (Disgorged 12/18)

LOUIS ROEDERER
Négociant-Manipulant in Reims; founded
1776; owns 593 acres: 60% pinot noir, 35%
chardonnay, 5% pinot meunier; average
vine age: 25 years; oldest vines: 50 years.
Vigneron: Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon; 291,667
cases produced. Imported by Maisons
Marques & Domaines USA, Oakland, CA
274029

92 | Louis Roederer

$79

92 | Louis Roederer

$55

2013 Champagne Brut Rosé ^ In keeping
with the talents Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon
brings to rosé Champagne, this offers joyous drinking in a serious wine. It's pale pink
in color with a floral highlight to the honey
notes and fresh-picked raspberry flavors. A
pink-chalk impression lasts, and though this
is not at the level of the 2012, it is immediately refreshing and delicious.
274028
Champagne Brut Premier (Best Buy) ^ This
is a distinctly red-fruited release of Brut
Premier, the only Roederer wine that consistently includes some softer lots taken
through malolactic conversion. It tastes like
chalk infused with the sweet juice of fraises
des bois, deepening to raspberries, lasting on
spice. There's tension to the wine so it finishes clean, but it's also "fun to drink," as
one taster noted, "with the dosage the wine
needed."

WINE & SPIRITS

DECEMBER 2019

69



Wine & Spirits - December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - December 2019

Contents
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 1
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 2
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 3
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 4
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 6
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 7
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 8
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 9
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 10
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 11
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 12
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 13
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 14
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 15
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 16
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 17
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 18
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 19
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 20
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 21
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 22
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 23
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 24
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 25
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 26
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 27
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 28
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 29
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 30
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 31
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 32
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 33
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 34
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 35
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 36
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 37
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 38
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 39
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 40
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 41
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 42
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 43
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 44
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 45
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 46
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 47
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 48
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 49
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 50
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 51
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 52
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 53
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 54
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 55
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 56
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 57
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 58
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 59
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 60
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 61
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 62
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 63
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 64
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 65
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 66
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 67
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 68
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 69
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 70
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 71
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 72
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 73
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 74
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 75
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 76
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 77
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 78
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 79
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 80
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 81
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 82
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 83
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 84
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 85
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 86
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 87
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 88
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 89
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 90
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 91
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 92
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 93
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 94
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 95
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 96
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - Cover3
Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - Cover4
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