Studying Champagne while your life is going through several circumstances for which Champagne is simply Not Acceptable is a weird moment. Or maybe it is acceptable. I haven’t decided yet. All I know is that it’s been a pendulum of anxiety and excitement, and suddenly every day seems simultaneously too slow and too fast.

Zoom presentations on 21 Champagne producers? Yes! All for it, but presenting Gaston Chiquet and telling a funny story about their blanc de blancs and your last birthday in Vancouver before moving to San Francisco while trying to budget finances at the corner of your eye is real. Falling asleep in a bathroom: real.

…actually, there may be a reason for Champagne, but I don’t wanna say what that is yet. Let’s leave it at that. I also don’t remember why I didn’t post this in 2018? It may have been that trip to Missouri vineyards (?!) which honestly deserves a 2-year-old post in itself. Let. Me. Tell. You.

Onwards.

August 2018:

Not many wines blow my mind, but it’s a mindfuck when you smell a wine so oddly evocative of the caramelized sugar your dad used to make for leche flan. That was for Filipino family parties, but this was the Chartogne-Taillet 2012 “Couarres Château” Extra Brut. You wonder how you ended up from that childhood memory to tasting 13 Champagnes on a Wednesday morning in a room full of older white men in suits. In the corner of the room is a guy who stopped talking to you on Grindr because he tried to condescendingly seduce you with his wine knowledge and failed. Bitch: I don’t have time for the story about how you told the wine shop associates that you’ve tasted everything on that one wall of their store. I’m drinking Trader joe bubbly rn.

Anyways, the 10 others:

Both the Krug Grande Cuvée 163ème Édition and Krug Grande Cuvée 166ème Édition en Magnum have developing aromas of brioche, baked apple, and oak; the 163ème has a some coffee and meatiness on the palate that opens up to toffee and butterscotch, while the 166ème more of those pronounced earthy coffee notes up front, which open up to mushroom and toffee on the palate. The former: 37% Pinot Noir, 32% Chardonnay, 31% Meunier. 183 different wines from 12 different vintages, the oldest being 1990 and the youngest being 2007. The latter: 45% Pinot Noir, 39% Chardonnay, 16% Meunier. 140 different wines from 10 different vintages, the oldest being 1998 and the youngest being 2010.

Emmanuel Brochet “Le Mont Benoit” Extra Brut
Shantay, you stay. Brochet, away. Jk this was delicious. Green apple, yeast, caramel, and hints to white peach. Opens up with autumnal spice and apple pie on the palate. Has some waxy chewiness, with – Interestingly – a hint of salted meat. Brochet aims for 5 atm of pressure for “sweet bubbles”. Pair this with RuPaul’s Drag Race winning an Emmy 👯‍♂️ 80% from the 2014 vintage; 20% from reserves that go back to 2011. 37% Meunier, 33% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay.

Dom Ruinart 2006 Blanc de Blancs
There’s a dom top Dom Ruinart joke somewhere in here but I’m not gonna do it 👯‍♂️ I don’t normally eat breakfast, but this is fully a bread and coffee moment – developing with a coffee-like aroma to the nose, opening up with some creamy flavours of mushroom and butterscotch on the palate. Fresh buttered bread eventually makes an appearance (as it normally should tbh).

Krug 2004
Krug’s classic potency of oak married with brioche and almonds, and there’s a single strawberry betwixt the developing aromas. The sips are perfect, kingly, and complete: the texture is almost aggressive, but it remains elegant, leesy, and open. 37% Pinot Noir, 39% Chardonnay, 24% Meunier.

Ruinart Rosé
Much like its NV blanc de blancs counterpart, we find nothing but purity and a pristine elegance with dried raspberries, strawberries, and yeast. Not the most provocative rosé Champagne I’ve had, but it hits the center of the bullseye if the frilly target is dependable precision. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Paul Bara “Grand Rosé”
First, dom top Dom Ruinart and now Paul Bara….bara…..someone say it for me….. 🤷🏽‍♂️ Tightest of the 5 Rosé Champagnes. Pale onion skin with a shier nose than the others, and red fruit joined by dashes of popcorn, yeast, and meatiness. A sweet-sour lemony tinge along with creamy yet persistent mousse brings a lot more drama to the palate. Long. 80% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay.

Krug Rosé 21ème Édition
Pale onion skin, and the most open in a flight of 5 rosé Champagnes. Almost something Burgundian about this, with the tense red fruit balanced by a decadent and giving combination of oak, almonds, and yeast. Uses all 3 of the main Champagne grapes.

Rene Geoffroy 2013 “Rosé de Saignée”
In stark contrast to the pale onion skin colour and the hedonistic oak of the Krug Rosé 21ème Édition Rosé Champagne, the René Geoffroy 2015 Rosé de Saignée Rosé Champagne was a deep pink hue, showing punchier balsamic raspberry notes and a distinct mark of black pepper. The departure from something more autolytic even brought more Pinot Noir to mind than it did Champagne, and a hint of something leafy on the palate even brought Cab Franc to mind. Pinch of tannin.

Dom Ruinart 2004 Rosé
Y’all roasted me for special k red berries cereal for breakfast but this is all coffee, dried red fruit, with more fruit intensity showing on the palate. 2004 but still a lot of space to evolve. 81% Chardonnay, 19% Pinot Noir. Rosé is only 0.2% of Ruinart’s production.