April Edition: Opposites Attract - Emperor Champagne Club

Welcome back to all of our Champagne Club members. This is a very interesting thing. We're looking at a place which is known in vineyard sites, in terroir sites, Pinot Noir. So we've got two sites that we're looking at. We're looking at Buzi. Buzi is in the Montagne du Rhum, in the Champagne area, which is traditionally Pinot Noir led. It is a beautiful village of Pinot Noir. However, we've got 100% Chardonnay Blanc de Blanc coming from the town of Buzi. We're also looking at another Blanc de Blanc from a house that is classically a Pinot Noir dominant producer and that house is in the Côte d'Ivoire, again, Pinot country. Now let's break it down for a minute. We've got two great varietals that are classically produced in Champagne. Chardonnay, which we have 100% Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are often grown side by side. They're often planted in the same regions. You see it in Burgundy, you see it in Champagne, you see it in Australia, you see it in Tasmania. However, they're very different in the way that they grow and in their viticultural practices. Pinot Noir is a bit more of a diva. So the clusters are tighter, it's got a thinner skin, it's more susceptible to rot, to illness, to disease. It's definitely more difficult to grow so it's very site specific on where you want to plant Pinot Noir and we're protecting it. Chardonnay, she's the chameleon of the vineyard. For me she's the feminine being of the vineyard. She's a little easier to grow but she's most definitely a chameleon. So where she's putting her feet is, and in Champagne it's classically or traditionally chalk, although there are but Chardonnay takes on the environment with where she's grown and she's a little bit more forgiving on the terroir. So we're looking at two Chardonnay parcels coming from Pinot country. Now first house, coming out to all of our lovers, this is an awesome Champagne. I think this house is massively underrated. They are an R.M. so they're a recalcitrant, they're doing everything on their own vineyard site. They're growing their own grapes, they're picking, they're pressing, they're harvesting, they're producing their wine. They're a minimum of three years of aging up to eight years of aging. The Champagne that I've chosen for you which is awesome is the 2016 Blanc de Blanc. 2016 vintage was slightly chaotic year but in the end a good harvest. There was hail, there was frost, there was heat wave, there was so much going on in the vineyards. It was challenging. Some late sun in the summer saved the harvest. We ended up with a fairly small crop but a very good crop nonetheless. So all fruit from 2016, seven years in the cellar, four grams dosage, all Chardonnay as I said. Stainless steel, full malolactic fermentation. Now we're growing, this house is located in the Coates Bar down in the south. The warmer climate conditions. What you're going to see in a Blanc de Blanc from the south or from this particular region is more ripeness, more generosity. You've got white fruits, you've got acacia, you've got jasmine, you've got white peach. You've got some minerality on the finish and a lovely acid lime because it was quite cool during the harvest. But you've got more ripeness and more generosity. My food pairing with this wine, I'm thinking a lobster pasta, something a bit richer, maybe some scallops just drowned in butter and some garlic. But this wine definitely has a lot of generosity both from its positioning in terms of being south, so further down south is warmer. We've got Kimmeridgian clay rather than that pure steely minerality coming from the Coates de Blanc and more generosity, more ripeness, more roundness. And for our connoisseurs, another knockout champagne. I love this. I think it's awesome. The second producer is Georges Vercel. Georges Vercel is an uber passionate winemaker. A really, really good winemaker and a man who really goes to a lot of effort for his viticulture and his innovation within the vineyard. He was the mayor of Boosie for 25 years and he also worked for some of the bigger houses. Monopole. So he was very instrumental in the winemaking team in those bigger houses and then brings his expertise into his own family vineyard site. 17 hectares of fruit. Classically they're in Boosie, so the house is 90% Pinot Noir. But for the wine that we're bringing up to you, it is another Blanc de Blanc. You can see from the beautiful bottle. Outstanding wine. Again, what you're going to end up with is more richness, more generosity, more roundness. This is not a vintage. More depth of flavour, more vinocity. So you can actually pair this wine with something that's a bit richer. So for me personally, I'm doing cork or I'm doing some kind of mushroom dish. It could be mushroom within pasta. So two wines coming from regions of the Classical Pinot territory. Chardonnay showing you just how goddamn versatile she can be. But two exceptional champagnes for two coming to all of our club members and Georges Pascal, Blanc de Blanc coming to all of our connoisseurs. I hope you enjoy the wine for this month. I certainly did.