r/Champagne

Had a bit of a Champagne-heavy week 😅

Bollinger Special Cuvée
Perrier-Jouët Blanc de Blancs
Charles Heidsieck Blanc de Blancs
Perrier-Jouët Blason Rosé
Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru
Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé (Magnum)
Pommery Cuvée Louise 2005
Quite a fun mix because most of them are in a somewhat similar category, with Louise obviously being the odd one out.

My ranking:

1. Pommery Cuvée Louise 2005 — 95
Clearly the most complete wine. Mature but still fresh, more depth and complexity than the others and a long finish.

2. Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs — 94
Probably my favorite of the non-prestige wines. Lots of yeast, citrus and chalk, with great tension and a lovely saline finish.

3. Charles Heidsieck Blanc de Blancs — 93+
Richer and creamier than the Billecart, with good depth and texture. Very complete, just a little less precise.

4. Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé Magnum — 93
Elegant and polished, with fresh red fruit and really nice balance. I still prefer their BdB quite clearly, but this was excellent.

5. Perrier-Jouët Blanc de Blancs — 93
Fresh, floral and bright. Not quite as complex as the wines above, but incredibly easy to drink.

6. Perrier-Jouët Blason Rosé — 92
Fruitier and more expressive, but doesn’t quite have the depth of the wines above.

7. Bollinger Special Cuvée — 92
Rich, vinous and unmistakably Bollinger. Good, but in this lineup it didn’t excite me quite as much.

No bad wines here at all. The gaps between some of them were pretty small.

Which one would you pick if all seven were sitting in front of you?

Had a fun little Blanc de Blancs comparison this week. Not side by side, but close enough together to get a pretty good feeling for the differences.

Perrier-Jouët Blanc de Blancs – 93/100
Probably the most immediately charming of the three. Very fresh and floral, with bright citrus fruit and a light, elegant feel. Super easy to drink and really enjoyable, but compared to the other two it felt slightly less deep and complex.

Charles Heidsieck Blanc de Blancs – 93+/100
A noticeable step up in depth and richness. More texture and body than the PJ, while still keeping plenty of freshness. Creamier and more vinous, but with enough acidity to stay balanced. Very complete Champagne and probably the most generous of the three.

Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru – 94/100
My favorite, but only just. More linear and precise than the Charles, with citrus, chalk/minerality and quite a lot of yeasty character. There’s a lovely saline finish as well. Despite the pronounced yeastiness, it still feels focused and structured rather than broad or overly creamy. It has a bit more tension, which is generally what I look for in Blanc de Blancs. Less immediately generous than the Charles, but I found it slightly more refined and complete.

For me:
Billecart > Charles > Perrier-Jouët

But the gap is really small, especially between Billecart and Charles. I’d happily drink all three again. PJ might actually be the easiest bottle to just open and enjoy, Charles gives you the most richness, while Billecart hits the sweet spot for my palate with its precision and minerality.

Has anyone compared these three? Which one would you pick?

So I'm partial to Côte des Bars and always enjoy the wines from that part of Champagne. That soil really speaks to me I suppose. I like the contrast between Côte des Bars and Chablis being that they're so close. I feel Pinot Noir from this part of Champagne is generally fruitier and with age shows a richer, deeper fruit than the northern regions. All the little villages with the small hills are so beautiful too, not to mention Burgundy is just a stone's throw away... Anyway Ruppert-Leroy has always been one of favourite producers and I credit them for making me want to explore that part of the region and the producers.

Cuttings taken from the Fosse-Grely plot (planted in the 70's by Gérard Ruppert) were used for the Papillon plot. They are certified biodynamic since 2014 and practice low intervention in the cellar. They have a bunch of animals on the farm, do composting for their fertilizers and their own preparations like chamomile instead of copper and stuff like that. Everything here basically goes full circle and I really like that

My case just came in and I was eager to have some of their wine. Last time I had one this young was was 11, 12, 13,... like 5 years ago and ever since I typically wait 4-5 years post dégorgement as they show such deep character as they evolve. Last Papillon I opened was R18 D2020 was during game 7 of the LA Dodgers vs Toronto Blue Jays of the world series last year. It was going to be a celebration or drowning our sorrows with top shelf wine... We drowned our sorrows

This one, fresher, shows some nice fruit on the nose (blood orange, red berries) and some wild herbal notes I just can't put my finger on. Still quite yeasty but definitely enjoyable. There's a lot of red fruit on the palate with some salinity that just lasts for ever and keeps you wanting to drink more. Beautiful texture, balanced acidity, soft bubbles. I absolutely love the colour on this as well, not BdN and not rosé but somewhere in the middle.

The calm before the storm

Kt

So, longitude degorged 2023, so good, fresh, very Larmadier

745, perfectly ready to drink, the warmth of the year really influences the wine, so ready to drink, even in magnum

3A, gorgeous, dgt 2021, so large yet fresh, so so good

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LP rose, depends on the day the best NV rose in champagne (some other days is Billecart)

The others I"m still tasting...