We held this year's second round of Bring Your Own Bottle of Bubbly - BYOBB (TM) yesterday. Like the one in May, it was good fun, great company, and a lot of yummy bubbles. We re-tasted some of the sparklers from May, as well as a few new ones. The ground-rules remained the same as in May: non-vintage bubbles, blind tasting, and marks out of 10 points for each bottle, with 10 being the best you've ever drunk and 1 being undrinkable. I will report on the order in which we drank, although please keep in mind we didn't find out until the end of the afternoon what each bottle was.
The first bottle was a re-run from May, Philizot et Fils numero 1. This champagne had a slightly poorer showing this time around, receiving marks of 5s to 7s (compared to 6s and 7s in May), and with tasters commenting that it was 'fine, but characterless' and that it had no finish. The total score was 38/70, leaving it in 5th place out of 6 bottles.
The next bottle was a new entry, Inflorescence by Bouchard, which I had drunk before and thought my tasters might enjoy. I was right, as the champagne received consistent marks of 6s and 7s across the group, who agreed that it was a 'fresh, well-made' champagne. The total score was 45/70, placing 2nd out of 6 bottles.
Our third bottle was another champagne that we had tried in May and that had scored toward the lower end of the spectrum then. Charles Ellner Brut Integral gathered marks ranging from 3s and 4s to a 6. Compared to the previous bottles we had opened, this champagne smelled almost medicinal, with one taster saying it 'smelled like a hospital' (funnily enough, the same person gave it the '6' ranking). By the end of the afternoon, more than half of this bottle remained undrunk (and now awaits its final fate in my fridge as an ingredient in champagne risotto), it just couldn't compete in the line-up we had. It placed last out of the 6 bottles with a total score of 28/70.
Our fourth bottle was a huge hit after the disappointment of the third bottle, with tasters commenting on the 'strong bubbles that evaporate quickly in your mouth' and the full-flavour of the champagne being more like a 'wine with bubbles'. Billecart-Salmon Brut Blanc de Blancs, was another re-run from May (and a regular in my fridge!). Despite the positive comments and a quickly-emptied bottle, it scored less well than I would have expected with marks ranging from 4s to 8s (it was our top-scorer in May, receiving all 7s and 8s). The total score was 43/70, placing this champagne 3rd out of 6 bottles.
The only rose of the day came next, another new entrant in the field. This was Champagne Thienot Brut Rose, a fruity, bubbly, luscious wine that also disappeared from our glasses very quickly with tasters commenting that it was 'very drinkable'. It scored mostly 6s, book-ended with one 5 and one 7 ranking. With a total score of 42/70, it placed 4th out of the 6 bottles. It's also worth noting that this champagne was a particularly good match with the apple and blackberry pie we had for dessert.
At this point, we noted that while we had so far drunk some very good sparklers, none of them had really wow'ed us as a group. That ended with our final bottle, which had loads and loads of bubbles, and 'flavours of apricot and lychee' - a totally different taste and style to all of the other bottles we had opened. Camel Valley Brut, the only non-French sparkler in the group, topped the tables as a new entrant with rankings of 5s to 8s and a total score of 47/70. This comes with a caveat, though - some of our tasters felt that where they could drink some of the other high-scorers throughout an evening or throughout the year, the distinct flavour of this wine limited its appeal to a single glass as an aperitif, or possibly as a warm weather sparkler. So even though it scored well, I ended up finishing the bottle while I was washing up after everyone left (yet still managed not to break any of my Billecart-Salmon-branded glassware)!
(NB While I was typing up my notes, I noticed that the Camel Valley was a 2007 vintage, so technically should be disqualified from this year's BYOBB competition which was to include only non-vintage bubbles!)
My thanks to everyone who came for bringing bottles, eating almost everything I cooked, giving honest feedback, and helping to take notes and clean up! Cheers!!
Showing posts with label BYOBB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BYOBB. Show all posts
Monday, 6 September 2010
Monday, 24 May 2010
BYOBB May'10
I have been blessed with a very thoughtful and helpful circle of friends. They're the sort of people who, when you invite them over, always ask what they can bring, and will even call you on the day to make sure there's nothing you missed that they can't pick up on the way over. I always want to tell them something useful to bring, but a lot of the time, I just can't think of anything.
Then I had this idea during the year of bubbles. It was rather forward, really. But I thought, why not invite a group of people over for some fantastic food and ask each family-group, up-front, to bring their own bottle of bubbly that we can open and try during the meal? Thus, the Bring Your Own Bottle Of Bubbly - BYOBB (TM)- event was established.
The ground rule has always been that what you bring doesn't have to be expensive or name brand, just a wine with bubbles that interests or excites you. The first year (2008), we were a group of about 10 people, and tried everything from cava to English sparkling wine to Billecart-Salmon rose. We didn't really rank it, just drank and ate a lot, and had a very nice afternoon.
Last year, we stepped things up a notch. We had about 16 people over, and we decided to blind-taste and rank everything we drank. It was a bit too big, to be honest, and because I didn't blog about it, I shamefully can't remember all of the different wines that we drank. I do remember that the favourites of the day were vintage Krug and Ruinart, with a surprisingly strong showing from Biddenden, an English sparkling wine.
This year, the BYOBB board decided that we needed to get back to a smaller group and do some serious (blind) tasting of non-vintage bubbles. And while we unfortunately were missing two guests due to illness, Mother Nature smiled on the six of us who got together on Sunday as we sat in the garden in the glorious sunshine!!
To start, I had been asked by The Champagne Warehouse to taste a bottle of Charles Ellner Brut Integral, a zero dosage champagne. This was a good aperitif, as the flavour of the wine was not very strong but held up to the mango gazpacho and prosciutto/melon/rocket rolls that I had made. Any stronger food and this champagne would be a bit lost, though. I was a little disappointed with the bubbles of this champagne (a common complaint for me throughout the day). This champagne scored an even mix of 4s and 5s out of 10 (10 being the best you've ever drunk, 1 being undrinkable), with a total score of 27/60.
As we were waiting for late arrivals, we moved on to the Philizot et Fils numero 2, a surprise entrant that my husband threw into the mix, as he was wondering what other people would make of this champagne. Thankfully, this bottle was nothing like the first one we opened and lacked the strong ground pepper flavour that made it hard to drink. One of our friends liked it more than the rest of the group, saying that it was fresh and flavoursome. Scores ranged from 4 to 7 out of 10, with a total score of 28/60.
The next bottle we opened was the Philizot et Fils numero 1. We served it with a spinach, chorizo, and potato tortilla and whipped salt cod with bread and crackers. Everyone agreed that this was a light, fresh champagne and marks moved up to 6s and 7s out of 10, with a total score of 41/60.
While I was in the kitchen preparing the next dish, a grapefruit, avocado, and pomegranite salad topped with lemon-marinated shrimp, my husband came in with the next glass of champagne, saying "this is just your thing". It turned out to be Billecart-Salmon brut blanc de blancs, a crisp, yeasty, wonderful champagne (even blind-tasting, my husband knows what I'll like). This was the top-scorer of the day, earning all 7s and 8s, with a total score of 47/60.
The final bottle was opened over our dual desserts of apple and rhubarb crumble and chocolate pate with chocolate-hazelnut shortbread. This wine was a puzzler - it was the only one that had enough bubbles for me. It had intense aromas and a depth of flavour. It defintely wasn't French, but none of us could place it, or identify the kind of grapes. It turned out to be a Russian sparkling wine from Abrau-Dyurso, which is a blend of some traditional champagne grapes and other grapes like riesling. Because it was such an unusual and interesting wine, it scored 5s and 6s, with a total score of 34/60.
It was a little surprising to me that our top two bubbles were French blanc de blancs, but I guess nothing beats a well-made and fresh sparkler on a hot summer day!
Along with thanking my friends for bringing their wines and for spending the afternoon drinking, eating, and ranking with us, I do have to thank my 'corporate sponsors':
Billecart-Salmon, for providing glasses, chilling buckets, and aprons and
The Champagne Warehouse for providing the tasting bottle and some tasting notecards.
We'll be repeating this tasting with the same wines later in the year, and it will be interesting to see if and how our opinions of these wines change with time!
Then I had this idea during the year of bubbles. It was rather forward, really. But I thought, why not invite a group of people over for some fantastic food and ask each family-group, up-front, to bring their own bottle of bubbly that we can open and try during the meal? Thus, the Bring Your Own Bottle Of Bubbly - BYOBB (TM)- event was established.
The ground rule has always been that what you bring doesn't have to be expensive or name brand, just a wine with bubbles that interests or excites you. The first year (2008), we were a group of about 10 people, and tried everything from cava to English sparkling wine to Billecart-Salmon rose. We didn't really rank it, just drank and ate a lot, and had a very nice afternoon.
Last year, we stepped things up a notch. We had about 16 people over, and we decided to blind-taste and rank everything we drank. It was a bit too big, to be honest, and because I didn't blog about it, I shamefully can't remember all of the different wines that we drank. I do remember that the favourites of the day were vintage Krug and Ruinart, with a surprisingly strong showing from Biddenden, an English sparkling wine.
This year, the BYOBB board decided that we needed to get back to a smaller group and do some serious (blind) tasting of non-vintage bubbles. And while we unfortunately were missing two guests due to illness, Mother Nature smiled on the six of us who got together on Sunday as we sat in the garden in the glorious sunshine!!
To start, I had been asked by The Champagne Warehouse to taste a bottle of Charles Ellner Brut Integral, a zero dosage champagne. This was a good aperitif, as the flavour of the wine was not very strong but held up to the mango gazpacho and prosciutto/melon/rocket rolls that I had made. Any stronger food and this champagne would be a bit lost, though. I was a little disappointed with the bubbles of this champagne (a common complaint for me throughout the day). This champagne scored an even mix of 4s and 5s out of 10 (10 being the best you've ever drunk, 1 being undrinkable), with a total score of 27/60.
As we were waiting for late arrivals, we moved on to the Philizot et Fils numero 2, a surprise entrant that my husband threw into the mix, as he was wondering what other people would make of this champagne. Thankfully, this bottle was nothing like the first one we opened and lacked the strong ground pepper flavour that made it hard to drink. One of our friends liked it more than the rest of the group, saying that it was fresh and flavoursome. Scores ranged from 4 to 7 out of 10, with a total score of 28/60.
The next bottle we opened was the Philizot et Fils numero 1. We served it with a spinach, chorizo, and potato tortilla and whipped salt cod with bread and crackers. Everyone agreed that this was a light, fresh champagne and marks moved up to 6s and 7s out of 10, with a total score of 41/60.
While I was in the kitchen preparing the next dish, a grapefruit, avocado, and pomegranite salad topped with lemon-marinated shrimp, my husband came in with the next glass of champagne, saying "this is just your thing". It turned out to be Billecart-Salmon brut blanc de blancs, a crisp, yeasty, wonderful champagne (even blind-tasting, my husband knows what I'll like). This was the top-scorer of the day, earning all 7s and 8s, with a total score of 47/60.
The final bottle was opened over our dual desserts of apple and rhubarb crumble and chocolate pate with chocolate-hazelnut shortbread. This wine was a puzzler - it was the only one that had enough bubbles for me. It had intense aromas and a depth of flavour. It defintely wasn't French, but none of us could place it, or identify the kind of grapes. It turned out to be a Russian sparkling wine from Abrau-Dyurso, which is a blend of some traditional champagne grapes and other grapes like riesling. Because it was such an unusual and interesting wine, it scored 5s and 6s, with a total score of 34/60.
It was a little surprising to me that our top two bubbles were French blanc de blancs, but I guess nothing beats a well-made and fresh sparkler on a hot summer day!
Along with thanking my friends for bringing their wines and for spending the afternoon drinking, eating, and ranking with us, I do have to thank my 'corporate sponsors':
Billecart-Salmon, for providing glasses, chilling buckets, and aprons and
The Champagne Warehouse for providing the tasting bottle and some tasting notecards.
We'll be repeating this tasting with the same wines later in the year, and it will be interesting to see if and how our opinions of these wines change with time!
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