Leftovers

My husband used the leftover champagne from last week's BYOBB to make a wonderful risotto for lunch yesterday, with grilled chicken, asparagus, and broccoli in it. It was delicious, especially accompanied by a bottle of Maison Lenique 2005. It's always a treat when someone else cooks for me, even more so when there are bubbles involved.

BYOBB Sept'10

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!!

Now I Just Feel Spoiled...

On Tuesday, I had jokingly asked my husband what to put on the champagne shelf for the next night's dinner. He told me to pick what I wanted, so I, of course, put in a bottle of Billecart-Salmon brut reserve. I didn't think we would actually drink it the next day, but then yesterday was another beautiful day, so we again celebrated the weather. Dinner was satisfying, but nothing special - chicken stir-fried with chorizo, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, spinach and chickpeas, served with rice. The champagne was fantastic with it, loads of bubbles and a tart, clean finish that cut through all of the flavours in the meal. It's like eating a crisp, just-picked apple off of a tree in autumn - juicy, not-too-sweet, and fresh.

But I have left the champagne shelf empty in anticipation of an upcoming BYOBB...I need room in the fridge for all of those bottles...

Extending the Bank Holiday

Yesterday was such a lovely day. I felt really sorry for all the people who had to go back to their office jobs, especially my husband who worked really hard on fixing our windows over the holiday weekend and didn't really get a break. To extend the holiday feel when he got home, I had done all of the evening chores and ordered in from our favourite Thai restaurant. All he had to do when he got home was eat dinner, accompanied by Billecart-Salmon Brut Blanc de Blancs. The champagne is a surprisingly good match with the Thai cuisine, although the chef seemed to have thrown in a couple of extra handfuls of chillis last night which was a little overwhelming. I hate to say it, but my seafood curry slightly outshone the champagne - along with mussels, scallops, squid, and shrimp, there was a half of a crab in it, just waiting to be picked apart and devoured. Yum!

August Bank Holiday - '10

We had some friends over last night for dinner - we cooked and they very kindly brought some amazing wines (thank you!). Knowing my love of bubbles, they brought a very special bottle of champagne as our aperitif - Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Elisabeth Salmon, a 2000 vintage rose made from a 50/50 split of pinot noir and chardonnay. It was a really wonderful champagne with a pretty, peachy-blush colour, a huge aroma of fruity-ripe strawberries and a long, almost spicy finish. It had lots of teeny, tiny bubbles, too, the perfect start to the evening!

We also served a bottle of my Maison Lenique 2004 with dessert of peach and blackberry crumble with home-made vanilla gelato. While everyone found it very drinkable, the consensus remains that it's not as good as the Billecart-Salmon champagnes. It's hard to beat them...

Date Night - Aug 10

We decided to have some champagne last night since it was date night, but with two cold bottles in the fridge, it was a tough choice. Since my husband said he would only drink the Maison Lenique 2005 with me since he considers it to be mine (he gave it to me as a gift), we decided to open that. It was wonderful - rich and fruity, and so bubbly that I got drenched when I opened it. It was so more-ish that when we finished the bottle, it just didn't seem like enough.

We're so greedy that we opened the other cold bottle of Billecart-Salmon brut reserve. We didn't finish it, just one glass each, which really hit the spot. It was interesting to compare the two champagnes this closely. The Billecart-Salmon was lighter and fresher than the Maison Lenique, but more complex and with a much longer finish. They both have spectacular bubbles, which is why they're always on my list of favourites!!

Not a Lazy Sunday

Yesterday, my husband started the daunting task of repairing/re-building our wooden sash windows. I admire him for this - it's a big job that requires power tools, something I wouldn't be able to do.

It seemed appropriate that we have some bubbly to celebrate his first window completed, so we opened a bottle of G. Tribaut Cuvee de Reserve that we got from the Champagne Warehouse. It's an even blend of chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier and was an excellent accompaniment to the Cuban-marinated pork chops that we had for dinner. The best part - there were so many bubbles in the champagne that it was difficult to tell what it tasted like on the first few sips because all you got in your mouth was the burst of air from the bubbles popping!! But the flavour is wonderfully complex and rich, with just a hint of sweetness on the finish. My husband commented that he thought the champagne would have had a higher percentage of pinot noir in it, because it had that sort of flavour.

We both agreed that this champagne is a 'do-over', one that we would gladly drink again.