TN Wednesday fizz

Chris Hambleton

Chris Hambleton

Location
London
What to do on Wednesday when you’ve woken up with a torn ligament in your ankle? Go to the walk in centre. Get your foot shunted around so when you leave it hurts way more than when you arrived. Anaesthetic needed…

12CC290D-2E55-43E2-89B3-2C3478B00E99.jpeg

This is what champagne friends are for!


Alfred Graiten 2012

Open, complex, Smokey/mineral/ripe lemon sherbet and very drinkable for a youngster.

Bollinger LGA 2012
Much more muted to start with but opened up into a very pinot driven nose and no sign of bruised apple ox

An excellent start


Taittinger 2008
Taittinger 2005

Two label styles and two wine styles. The 05 open, perhaps a little loose, when chilled all together but as it warms it falls s little short on the finish. Delicious nonetheless l!

08 is still taught and perhaps needs longer, better balance, more integrated and higher acid. Here’s why 05 should not be dismissed but 08 is top class


Gosset Celebris 2002
Theophile Roederer 2002

Here the table diverges. I think celebris is a super wine and can see why people love it but I don’t. I just like it a lot for the exuberant ripe cherry and boiled sweets/pear drops. However the richer, more nutty and yeasty theophile (Louis?) roederer comes out in front.

Vilmart 1999
Bollinger RD 1999

Howard found vilmart on Monday, I finally got them tonight having enjoyed Monday’s 01 offering. Very complete, open, biscuits behind the fruit. I found this a little classier and more refined than the celebris but perhaps that was the turbot We were treated to. Bolly rd sparked a lively chat about all things disgorgement and reminded us why we were there -Po wanted to know if the magnum effect is real! This was huge, punchy, pinot driven bolly at its best . Superb

Roederer rose 2008
Gobillard rose 2008

These two looked, smelled and tasted quite similar. But the roederer had more depth and length. Very good showing from gobillard though with some lovely tight red fruit on the palate. Roederer that bit richer and more complex.

The dessert though? Stupendous! I’m not one for puddings but always look forward to a trompers triumph and this…
AAC2554F-A7AA-4E3B-8922-29C56F630338.jpeg

Was off the charts.

There was also a lively discussion around a creaky donation of ruinart rose from stevie p in absenting but that’s a thread in itself.
 
O

Oliver Coleman-Green

Location
London
What to say? Well, what a night!

Fantastic discussion on whether the magnum effect is real, great wines, great food, outstanding company.

I think Vilmart CdC and Gosset Celebris certainly up there for WoTN. Special mention to the Gobillard, and the Roederer was a beaut. But, honestly, no real duds (old NV ruinart aside which was a generous contribution from someone we all wished were in attendance).

P.S. we really are spoiled by such first rate food and service at LaT
 
H

Howard Ripley

Location
London
Horrified to see Chris hobble in on crutches and wearing a protective boot. No apparent cause. Just shows how dangerous turning over in bed can be !

A hugely enjoyable evening. Chris's tasting notes are excellent . Many thanks to Donald for once again writing the name of each wine on the glass without which we would have very soon been completely lost. A delicious meal, some lovely wines and great company. Many thanks to Po for organising this event.
 
Po-yu Sung

Po-yu Sung

Location
London
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My camera is not as good as Mike's but hey, here is the magnum line up.

This is the sequel of NV champagne magnum last year... the theme is "non-prestige vintage magnum" though it's a loose theme so you can see stuffs which should be in category of prestige here. Anyway, you got the concept.
Like last time, it took some efforts to pull everything together, but I am very glad that with everyone's help, we all made it and we had a wonderful time in La Trompette private dining room.

A very special thank for Donald and La Trompette team. I personally think LT does seafood very well and I couldn't be happier to have a pescatarians menu there on an early summer day.

About the wine, I think most if not all of the wine delivered what they were expected to. Some are good surprises, such as two growers Graiten and Gobillard, very good value. Bollinger GA 2012 was a bit young as expected, and also developing in the glass and bottle for hours as expected. I found it much better than the terribly-tight 2012 bottle I had last year, maybe magnum effect? Two Taittinger, again as expected, 2005 was generous and open, in contrast of the lean and structured 2008 next to it.

Both 2002 aged beautifully, almost in identical colour. We had some discussion about if magnum supriority (at early stage) is really from the area of neck or different time on lees, however I guess most would accept magnum is indeed a better format to age wine.
I have some "fond" memory about Gosset celebris 2002; when I newly joined the forum (not that many years ago), Selfridges still did their Christmas champagne tasting, Gosset celebris 2002 bottle was shown as new release. By the end of event I was given a full glass as they want to finish the last bottle. At that time, 5g/l dosage was seen as low, and together with Gosset's non-malo acidity... my stomach suffered a bit on my way home (reference: Tom C's champagne and v***t thread). Since then, animal instinct kept me away from Gosset. I have to say, the magnum yesterday did justice for this actually very good wine; it was just not made to be loved on release, by a weak drinker like I was! The proper aging in magnum definitely worked the magic, and possibly I am also a different drinker now...

F&M Roederer 2002 magnum has another story. There was a time when wine shop at F&M was an inspiring place to buy wine, at that time their wine specialist knows what they were selling and what they were talking about. One day I was recommended this "last magnum of our 2002 champagne, great value". That was my first ever magnum purchase. But I never had chance to open it until yesterday! I don't know the details of dosage but I felt it's definitely higher than 5g/l, so that bit certainly showed in the comparison. It was round, front, almost like candy mouth feel, a bit crowd pleasing. Very good but not as complexed as Gosset. But that's not the end of story. By the very end of event, there were still about 400ml or so wine in this magnum, and I tasted it again.... it turned into a serious wine. That pleasing round feeling was just a make-up, under that it's a solid structured wine, about as solid as 2008 Roederer. I was really quite impressed by this final show-off hence I don't score it less than Gosset.

Vilmart's wine making changed a bit, I heard. This 1999 magnum was from a time when the house rightfully earned its fans. I think it's rather complete, very wine-like, much to analyse and appreciate about. A comfortable WOTN for me. Bolly RD 1999 had a nose changing every minute... I wouldn't say I love every minute but finally it settled on "yes, this is Bolly". I quite like the savory palate, there is something almost salty for me and strangely I really liked it.

The wine which is slightly less than what people expected was Roederer rose 2008. It's not a bad bottle at all, just magnum effect was probably a burden rather than a charm here. One can still absolutely tell it's a good juice, just it also shouted "leave me alone!" Gobillard, there is a "prestige" in its name, but the price is very approachable. I think the table agree it's a very good value wine and I heard someone already made purchase immediately.

Finally, Steve P very kindly offered an old Ruinart rose NV for our previous NV magnum dinner, but it arrived late so it stayed with me all these months until it can joined others last eve. It was a bit too old to be appreciated, I guess, but it was a good intellectual fun and invoked vivid discussion around the table (which I assume is what Steve intended to offer!)

Again many thanks for everyone and, well, let's whatelse I can do for the next event.
 
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M

Mike Holliday

Location
Northampton
There was a little of my Bollinger '12 left (nearly 2 small glasses) so I got out my WAF closure and took it home; sampling 1 day later it had opened out a bit more; some toasty, buttery flavours, and more of the pinot; no matter how good the closure there was bound to be a loss of mousse with just a small amount in a magnum, but still reasonably lively.
Many thanks to Po-yu for organising, and everyone for great contributions. Yet again a brilliant meal from La Trompette - most of the time I am not particularly inspired by desserts, but this one was exceptional.
 
J

Jeremy Caan

Location
Europe
Chris Hambleton said:
What to do on Wednesday when you’ve woken up with a torn ligament in your ankle? Go to the walk in centre. Get your foot shunted around so when you leave it hurts way more than when you arrived. Anaesthetic needed…

View attachment 25500

This is what champagne friends are for!


Alfred Graiten 2012

Open, complex, Smokey/mineral/ripe lemon sherbet and very drinkable for a youngster.

Bollinger LGA 2012
Much more muted to start with but opened up into a very pinot driven nose and no sign of bruised apple ox

An excellent start


Taittinger 2008
Taittinger 2005

Two label styles and two wine styles. The 05 open, perhaps a little loose, when chilled all together but as it warms it falls s little short on the finish. Delicious nonetheless l!

08 is still taught and perhaps needs longer, better balance, more integrated and higher acid. Here’s why 05 should not be dismissed but 08 is top class


Gosset Celebris 2002
Theophile Roederer 2002

Here the table diverges. I think celebris is a super wine and can see why people love it but I don’t. I just like it a lot for the exuberant ripe cherry and boiled sweets/pear drops. However the richer, more nutty and yeasty theophile (Louis?) roederer comes out in front.

Vilmart 1999
Bollinger RD 1999

Howard found vilmart on Monday, I finally got them tonight having enjoyed Monday’s 01 offering. Very complete, open, biscuits behind the fruit. I found this a little classier and more refined than the celebris but perhaps that was the turbot We were treated to. Bolly rd sparked a lively chat about all things disgorgement and reminded us why we were there -Po wanted to know if the magnum effect is real! This was huge, punchy, pinot driven bolly at its best . Superb

Roederer rose 2008
Gobillard rose 2008

These two looked, smelled and tasted quite similar. But the roederer had more depth and length. Very good showing from gobillard though with some lovely tight red fruit on the palate. Roederer that bit richer and more complex.

The dessert though? Stupendous! I’m not one for puddings but always look forward to a trompers triumph and this…
View attachment 25501

Was off the charts.

There was also a lively discussion around a creaky donation of ruinart rose from stevie p in absenting but that’s a thread in itself.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update on Taittinger 08, Chris.
 
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