Fizzy Fox

Today I tried Fox & Fox Mayfield Tradition 2014 Blanc de Noirs. It gets style points for the embossed fox on the neck foil - very cute. I really enjoyed the flavor, tart grapes and sour cherries, a bit of ripe apple, and just a touch of shortcrust pastry to balance the fruit. It was fizzy rather than bubbly, but it had loads of fizz that lasted through the glass and to the end of the bottle. This is a very fun English sparkler, one that I would drink again and would recommend to others.

I Really Want to Heart NY

I was back in the US last week, and being a good native-New Yorker, ordered some more of the Chateau Frank sparkling wine to try. It's supposed to be one of the better US sparkling wines, but my first experience with this maker underwhelmed me. So I ordered two more bottles - one being the highly rated blanc de noirs. Unfortunately, this also wasn't great, and definitely didn't live up to the hype or the tasting notes. It had no balance, hitting the tongue with a bit of green apple that turned sweet in the mid-palate and then very acidic, leaving no finish whatsoever. It had none of the yeasty, nutty flavours that it claims to have, maybe just a tinge of biscuity sweetness in the middle. And the warmer it got, the sweeter it got. The bubbles also started big and heavy, but fizzled quickly into nothingness. Sigh. I have one more bottle from this maker to try, I really, really want to like it.

To perk up our tastebuds following the let-down of the Chateau Frank, we opened a bottle of Marie-Courtin Resonance Extra Brut that I got from The Sampler. This is a low dosage, predominantly pinot noir champagne, and it couldn't have been more different from the Chateau Frank. The orchard fruit flavour - pears and apples fresh from the tree - was pure and rich, not a touch of sweetness in it. The bubbles were fine but persistent. The finish lasted forever. What a lovely wine, and a great example of what champagne is meant to be!

A Sampling from The Sampler

Just before Christmas, I ordered some champagne from The Sampler, and we've been drinking some of it in the last couple of weeks. A report on the four bottles we've tried:

We liked best Paul Dethune Grand Cru Brut, a 70/30 mix of pinot noir and chardonnay. This was everything I want in a champagne - it smelled of green apples and yeast, tasted like brioche, had a slightly tart and lingering finish, and had masses of tiny, never-ending bubbles. I bought this for around £30 for the bottle, and I think it was really good value. I would love to try other champagnes from this maker.

Next we liked RH Coutier Brut Rose. This was an incredibly dry rose for all of the lush berry scents it emitted, and we liked it for not being sweet. It had a touch of black pepper at the back of the mouth, but unfortunately no finish. While we enjoyed it, I preferred the English Pebblebed rose for having a similar balance but much better finish. Being slightly more expensive than the Paul Dethune, it didn't feel great value for money, so while we liked it, I don't think it will be a repeat purchase.

We had mixed feelings about Charlemagne Brut Nature, a non-dosage blend of 70/30 chardonnay and pinot noir - which I liked and my husband found disappointing. I liked it for being a straightforward, citrusy, bubbly aperitif, the kind of champagne you would serve in great quantities to guests on a nice day in the garden. I think my husband was expecting something more, some sort of complexity from it being a zero-dosage champagne. But I liked it for what it was, and also was impressed with the amount of bubbles it had. If you're looking for something challenging, this isn't it. If you're looking for something very drinkable, hold out your glass and say 'more please'.

Finally, the biggest surprise was the champagne we liked the least - La Parcelle blanc de noirs from Inflorescence. We couldn't believe how sweet this was, especially for a non-dosage champagne. Not to my liking at all, which surprised me considering how much I like the regular vintage version of their champagne. And at double the price of the Paul Dethune, definitely not a value-for-money drink.

Sunny Sunday

It's been raining here in London for so long that I've almost forgotten that it's summer. But it is, and this weekend was nice enough that on Saturday we walked to Brixton to shop at the market there and on Sunday we were actually able to cook some of what we bought and eat lunch outside. My husband made a delicious marinade for the thinly-cut beef ribs that we had picked up, and grilled them with some plantains (also from the market). While mojitos would probable have been the best thing to drink with our lunch, we didn't have the right ingredients. We opened a bottle of Maison Lenique blanc de noirs instead, the rich flavour holding up nicely to the wonderfully-spiced meat. A good match, and a good afternoon for some bubbles.

New Maison Lenique

I managed to acquire a mixed case of Maison Lenique through 3-D Wines - three different kinds of champagne that we hadn't tried before. We opened the first bottle from the case last night, a non-vintage blanc de noirs.

It was very different from the vintage blanc de blancs that we're used to from Maison Lenique. This champagne still had the same clean taste and wonderful balance, but it was much richer, with an almost blue cheese finish (which was good, as I LOVE blue cheese). The bubbles weren't quite as everlasting as the blanc de blancs, but still held a steady fizz at the end of the glass. Overall, it was very good, a nice change from what we know at Maison Lenique, and I'm glad I have a few more bottles of it.

Sour Grapes

We drank a bottle of Camel Valley's 2006 Pinot Noir Brut sparkling wine this weekend. This blanc de noir was excellent, with a tart grape flavour followed by a Bramley apple finish. It had great balance, lots of crisp flavours without any bitterness and lots of fruit without too much sweetness. The bubbles were great, too!

I have to say that I'm getting more and more impressed with this maker every time I drink their wine.

More Billecart-Salmon

On Saturday we were invited to dinner by some friends who are also champagne-lovers. Having seen how much I enjoyed the Billecart-Salmon's Vintage 2004 that I drank on Thursday, they very generously served two other Billecart-Salmon champagnes - the non-vintage extra-brut and the brut reserve. Both of these were wonderful. I preferred the extra-brut, which had the tart fruit and complete lack of sweetness that the Vinatge 2004 had, but none of the yeastiness. Everyone else seemed to prefer the brut reserve, though, which had the light sweetness that comes with orchard fruit flavours. Both wines had ample bubbles, too. The more I drink of the Billecart-Salmon range, the more I like!!

I had also brought a bottle of Domaine Ste Michelle's blanc de noirs to try - a Washington state sparkling wine that I had picked up on a recent trip to the US. It hadn't been sold to me as a rose wine, but it had a distinctly peachy colour. It was much sweeter than I was expecting it to be, with lots of berry flavours, but a short finish. It was pleasant enough, but probably a little unfair trying this wine after the other champagnes, because it's just not in the same league.

Welcome Home

I spent a long weekend in NYC (fabulous!) and arrived home yesterday afternoon. Having no plans for dinner nor any intention of cooking after the red-eye flight, I persuaded my husband to order-in from our favourite local Thai restaurant. When he asked me what I wanted to drink with dinner, I mentioned that I could always have the diet ginger ale I brought back from the US, but longingly eyed the bottle of bubbly that was also in the fridge. He's no slouch, out it came!!

This bottle was the Janisson Blanc de Noirs that I had ordered from the Champagne Warehouse. I was really looking forward to trying it because we tend to like blanc de noirs. This one was surprising - it had very nice stone fruit flavours with a slightly lemon-sour finish. But it had a honey-sweetness to it that we weren't expecting, one that I might not have loved if I were drinking the wine on its own, but that served it well with our spicy curry. So it's definitely a 'go-with-food' wine for us.

That said, I didn't like it at all with the M&Ms we shared for dessert, so it's possibly not a 'go-with-chocolate' wine.

An Explosive Bubbly

I was at Selfridges the other day, and had a quick look around their wine department. It's the sort of place that I like, as they always have something a little different. On this occasion, I received high praise when I took my selected bottle, a blanc de noirs champagne called Inflorescence to the register - apparently it's the most interesting bottle of bubbly they have at the moment, with Bouchard, the maker, having produced only 2000 bottles.

We opened it yesterday, as my husband was trying out the new smoker equipment he bought for the BBQ and had prepared some absolutely amazing and perfectly cooked smoked duck legs (the skin was crunchy, the meat was tender, moist, and well-flavored, I can't wait for him to make them again!). The wine didn't let the food down. It was very clean, with the complex flavours of honey but none of the sweetness. It had a creamy-smooth and very long finish with a mild toastiness to it. The only down-side was that it was so bubbly it literally exploded in my hands when I opened the bottle (and trust me, I've opened enough bottles that my technique is pretty good!) - I wound up drenched in champagne which was such a waste.

I'll be buying another bottle of this the next time I'm at Selfridges, hoping that they don't sell out before I get back!