Spec me Some Good Champagne

Dunno if any of you watched that Greg Mitchell program last night where he shows a family how to save money, but they were buying ten (Yes, TEN) bottles of champagne for Xmas at £30 each - but when doing a blind taste-test with cheap Cava and expensive champers, Aldi's cheap'n'cheerful Cava at less than a fiver a bottle came out tops.

The moral of the story? Don't waste your money, just buy cheap Cava. It makes a pop when you open the bottle, is pleasant tasting and isn't going to cost you a fortune for something that is ultimately fizzy wine.
 
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What's this little lovely I have been given. :D

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clockwork.satan said:
Dunno if any of you watched that Greg Mitchell program last night where he shows a family how to save money, but they were buying ten (Yes, TEN) bottles of champagne for Xmas at £30 each - but when doing a blind taste-test with cheap Cava and expensive champers, Aldi's cheap'n'cheerful Cava at less than a fiver a bottle came out tops.

The moral of the story? Don't waste your money, just buy cheap Cava. It makes a pop when you open the bottle, is pleasant tasting and isn't going to cost you a fortune for something that is ultimately fizzy wine.
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If you can't tell the difference between a Krug/Cristal/Salon > cheap Cava, you don't deserve to drink it :p
 
So I'm planning to do the thing I thought about doing back when I first started this thread 4 years ago. I want to get a bottle of vintage champagne for Christmas. Not really to celebrate as such, but this will be my first Christmas without my mum. I want something nice to toast her memory on the day, as silly as that might sound.

https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/30712/bollinger-la-grande-annee-champagne-2005-brut
https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/30561/dom-perignon-2006-vintage-champagne

These are the two I've had my eye on. I'm still fairly clueless when it comes to high end champagnes, though I have heard of both these brands. Anyone got any recommendations for a novice?
 
Both of those were served at a Champagne dinner I went to a couple of months ago.

I didn't like the Dom Perignon much at all, it gave me terrible heartburn and didn't taste nice enough to justify the hype or price.

La Grande Annee was very nice, a touch light in flavour but still very nice.

My personal favoruite was the first Champagne of the night - Laurient Perier Grand Siecle. Just the right amount of bubbles and a rich flavour. It's a non vintage but was definitely my favourite.

It's all personal tastes though of course.
 
I'd be surprised the Bolly was better than the 06 Dom. I really rated the 06 I had a couple of months ago. You can't blanket say "I prefer the X to the Y" as years make such a difference, and even in vintages, it'll vary.
Saying that, I'd take the Dom over the Bolly in this choice.

I had a bottle of Delamotte the other night. Lovely NV choice, but still no Louis. In fact, I had a NV Louis as well, it was a particularly biscuity one as well, which is why I say you can't say it'll always be the same, they're not.

I have a bottle of la Vignes aux Gamins from Thienot. It's the 2001, which I haven't had before. I had the 2004 last time and it was a treat though. I even got a 10 euro discount as they couldn't find the box for it, which I'll take :)

Was well tempted for a bottle of the '99 Salon, but thought the wife would kill me.
 
'Better' is a subjective term though, to my tastes the Bollinger was definitely better but your opinion may well be different.

I've had the Dom Perignon 2006 since that night and still wasn't that impressed by it.
 
randomshenans said:
I'd be surprised the Bolly was better than the 06 Dom. I really rated the 06 I had a couple of months ago. You can't blanket say "I prefer the X to the Y" as years make such a difference, and even in vintages, it'll vary. Saying that, I'd take the Dom over the Bolly in this choice.
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I didn't, which is why I mentioned the vintage. For my money I'd buy the Bollinger however.

Champagne cost is marked up considerably based on marketing, brand strength and exclusivity. The most expensive Champagne I've had is a £500 bottle of Cristal Rose (I wasn't paying thankfully!) which flavour wise wasn't particularly memorable. Just because Dom Perignon is more expensive than Bollinger Grande Annee, doesn't mean it's better.
 
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Finally got a reason to celebrate with Champers :D Got a bottle of the Rene Jolly Blanc de Noirs Brut (organic) and a bottle of the Lallier Grand Cru Millesime 2008.

I'll let you know how they taste tomorrow :)
 
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The Lallier was an incredible drop, it had a creamy mouth feel and tasted like sweet bread dough with peachy fruitiness. 9/10 will deffo drink this again. The Rene Jolly was almost the opposite type of champers: light and sharp at first then a berry-fruit sweetness on the tongue followed by a sherbert tang and bubbles down the sides of the mouth. Unusual but pleasant. Probably worth trying once.
 
You'll probably find from the description you've given, that the Lallier has more chardonnay in the blend, whereas the Rene is a blanc de noir, so is fully pinot noir grape.
The chardonnay will give you that dough like yeasty / biscuity taste (which I love) which you'll find if you have a good blanc de blancs as this is fully Chardonnay / white grapes.

A vintage BdB is some of the best drinking you can have in my eyes!
 
I'm not mad up on this champagne lark but I'm getting married next year and wanted to buy some bottles to save for future anniversaries. Will there be a 2017 vintage for various champagnes and if so when would 2017 vintage champagnes begin to appear on shelves in shops?

Sorry if this isn't how it works! I'm a bit of a newb!
 
Vintage years are those in which conditions are exceptionally good in terms of producing grapes that make a fantastic champagne. A vintage champagne is made from champagne that was produced only in a vintage year. Non-vintage champers can be from non-vintage years or a blend of several different years' champagne when one, or more, of those years were non-vintage.

Hope it helps, it's not particularly well written :(
 
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