$85, Cork, 12.5%
Whatever the case, I wanted more than I got. 16.9/89
Whatever the case, I wanted more than I got. 16.9/89
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At 18 I started working in a small suburban bottleshop, largely to buy cheap beer. It was my first year of university, doing a degree that I didn't really like, and a liquor shop seemed like fun. Needless to say I discovered wine, my uni degree morphed into something completely different and wine/beer took over my life.
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4 Comments
Had a somewhat relative experience on the weekend Andrew with 2 bottles of NV Cattier. The first one was pale-straw, fresh, brisk, creamy and effervescent. The second bottle fizzed over on opening, at which point we realised it had a different cork to the first bottle, and then it was flat and yellow in the glass, which transferred over to the developed palate 🙁
Both bottles were purchased from the same retailer some 15 minutes earlier 🙁
Your 2nd last line here makes good sense Andrew….
Cattier NV can be a mixed bag (and I often buy a bottle, still labouring as I am under the undoubtedly foolish idea that a cheap bottle of Champagne is more interesting than a good-quality Australian sparkling wine). They must produce a fair bit of it. At its best, it can be a very refreshing aperitif, with a pronounced lemony cut, at its worst, it can be just plain boring, though rarely bad. And just because you buy two together hardly means that you're getting the same product (though you have more hope of consistency than buying from two different places). It's a lottery really. The same with a vintage wine. With multiple disgorgements, you never know!
All part of the fun of drinkling Champagne.
Had a bottle of Pierre Gimmonnet Gastronome 2004 a few days back. $60 from "shudder" VC. Excellent blanc de blancs. My style of Champagne for not too much. Will be even better with a few years.
MichaelC
I should have said, "similar" to a vintage wine. The year might be the same, but the big houses obviously release in batches, and may not be able to achieve absolute consistency owing to volume. Then throw cork into the mix … I recall Lanson '96 being for sale for years and years, and it was quite obvious that there were multiple disgorgements. I guess you could call the last ones Lanson RD!!
In any cases, these thoughts apply to many wine produced in volume. Need I say Seppelt Chalambar? Almost every bottle tastes different. A bit cheaper than vintage Champagne admittedly …
MichaelC
I have reviewed this before! Enjoyed it much more last time, which was almost a year ago to the day…. http://www.ozwinereview.com/2009/01/pol-roger-1999.html