Champagne Splurge Week

We had a bit of a champagne binge this week. Started out with a NV Bollinger Special Cuvee. I've heard this called the 'poor man's Krug', the best value in high quality Champagne and many other names as it's been being produced for ages and is a staple of the Bollinger house. It's made from mostly grand and premier cru site grapes. This is our second bottle and the second was just as wonderful as the first. The color will probably be the first thing you notice because this wine is golden with a deeper, richer color than most unaged Champagnes. On the nose you get brioche and yeast, light citrus, minerality, and a sea spray smell. On the palate this Champagne is very complex with a mix of citrus, wet stone, brioche, and a wonderful light salinity with a slight but deep and round bitter note in the finish that doesn't bite. Just delicious. The mousse is fine and creamy and the finish is moderate. My favorite Champagne I've had so far (pretty limited exposure though) is the Moet Chandon 2015 Grand Vintage but Bollinger gives it a run for it's money and at half the price, although it's definitively still a 'treat yourself' wine.

Next, we had a bottle of NV Tattinger Brut La Francaise. On the nose this wine was light citrus and minerality. On the palate it was citrus, complex minerality and had a lot of precision and focus. The mousse was exceptionally smooth and effervescent and the finish was moderate. While a very different Champagne than the Bollinger with more primary instead of teritary flavors it was very nice too. They also sell this in 375ml bottles which are nice somtimes.