To continue my husband's birthday celebration and to celebrate the birthday of another friend in June, we had a small get-together on Sunday to do a tasting of all of the Maison Lenique champagnes we've purchased through 3-D Wines. Thankfully, the weather co-operated, and we had a lovely afternoon out in the garden.
We tasted the 2003 and 2004 vintages (grand cru, blanc de blanc wines) along with the 2004 maker's reserve with a course of light foods - melon with ham, strawberries, and zucchini pancakes. Almost unanimously, the 2003 was the favourite wine. It had a richness and nuttiness that was missing in the 2004 wines - one of our friends called it 'Krug-like'. The next favourite was the 2004 reserve, which had a lemon-yeasty freshness that's perfect for a summer afternoon, and then the 2004 vintage, which had a nice creaminess to it, but a slightly milder flavour than the other two wines.
We had some outstanding home-made fruit wines that one of our friends made with our main course, and then moved back to champagne for dessert. Our friends brought a bottle of 2002 Canard-Duchene Brut Millesime, which we served alongside a flourless chocolate cake. I'm supposed to say negative things about this wine, because it's not very reputable at the moment, and my friend has decided to make it his house champagne and doesn't want the price point to go up because of any good publicity. But I really can't. This was a light, fresh champagne with loads of bubbles. It was perfect with the chocolate dessert, and even better with the s'mores we made once the cake was gone (who knew that s'mores would be the perfect champagne dessert with their rich chocolatiness and burnt sugar flavours?). I'd definitely try other champagnes from this maker, especially while the price is still reasonable.
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