(2018) A one-off and exceptional wine from Gosset, 100% Pinot Meunier, aged for a full nine years on the lees in Gosset's cellars. The base vintage is 2007, with 10% reserve wines added. The Meunier comes from south-facing vineyards around Epernay, and it is very dry with only 3g/l of residual sugar. The colour immediately speaks of the age of the wine, a burnished yellow/gold, then very fine bubbles and a cushion of mousse, revealing lovely biscuit and toast and a yellow plum fruitiness. It is full and charming. In the mouth it is expansive and creamily rich, the mousse quite luxurious, and the pitch of the acidity - very noticeably saline - gives great freshness to the toasty, creamy, weighty fruit. Just lovely and a real treat to taste a truly exceptional Champagne.
(2017) Though their prestige cuvée, Belle Epoque, is also an all-Chardonnay wine, a non-vintage Blanc de Blancs is a new addition to Perrier-Jouët's repertoire as of summer 2017. Cellarmaster Hervé Deschamps selected his most elegant and floral Chardonnays for this blend, and it certainly fulfills its brief. From its clear glass bottle the wine pours a very pale colour and opens with fresh, bright floral and summery aromas, a subtle biscuit character, but much more focused on light fruitiness. In the mouth the mousse is crisp and the fruit clean and snappy, an elegant acid framework around cool, quite vivacious fruit. It's a lovely wine and no doubt precisely what Perrier-Jouët intended, but I have to say it feels just a little too simple at its price.
(2016) The high proportion of Chardonnay (45%) in the blend perhaps adds to the sense of creamy finesse in this wine, though with 18% of Pinot Noir blended in too it does not lack attractive small red berry fruitiness and a bit of texture and structure too. Wonderfully fresh and with a creaminess to the mousse, it is an utterly charming, rose-hip scented rosé Champagne, beautifully balanced and long too. Widely available with prices ranging from the low £40s on special deals to £60 per bottle.
(2013) 110+g/l RS. Quite a dry, nut husk aromatic, with subtle shellac and nuttiness. The palate has a luscious texture and glycerine richness, that along with moderate sweetness adds to the sense of richness, plenty of orange and lemon zest freshness again.
(2013) Paler, orange and tawny colour, immediately fine and subtle, a lemon marmalade character. In the background touches of walnut and even a hint of something floral. Deliciously mouth-watering dryness, with racy, fine, lemon zest and spices, lots of dry, racy acidity and deliciously moreish and tangy, rich. 45g/l sugar hidden behind that terrific acidity
