Champagne!

Champagne!

SO MANY BUBBLES!

Champagne!

Champagne! I hope you all had a good Christmas and then maybe a bit of a break this week. Here are some fun notes on Champagnes I’m excited to drink and where to find them around the State!

Billecart-Salmon Brut Sous Bois
$107/btl
Available at Riverside Butcher, Bow St Market in Freeport, Eventide Specialties, Browne Trading, and Main and Vine in Kennebunk
2 Magnums available at approximately $240/btl
Billecart Salmon: the oldest family owned Champagne house. They make incredible wines using some unique and intense processes, chiefly super long and cold primary fermentations in order to preserve more delicate aromas and flavors from their grapes. The Sous Bois is particularly unique because they do that primary fermentation in oak casks! Billecart is famous for ethereally beautiful wine making and complexity so these are not new oak casks that impart wood flavor to the wine; they’re neutral, but do soften the wine and round the flavors in a different way from the Brut Reserve or Brut Rose. This is equal parts Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir; all from the Billecart’s vineyards that are 1er or Grand cru.  

Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose
Approximately $130/btl
Available at Northern Union, Bleecker and Greer, Maine and Vine, RSVP, Eventide Specialties, Lily Lupine and Fern, The Vault, Tess Market, and The Wine Seller
2 Magnums available at $290/btl!

Billecart Salmon Brut Rose! Billecart’s Brut Rose is the most famous wine they make (out of many famous wines). This is 40% Chardonnay with 30% Pinot Noir and 30% Pinot Meunier. The wine ferments vey slowly at temperatures that yeast barely functions at for up to 7 weeks! This wine is pretty universally loved and recognized as the best NV Rose Champagne.
We have already sold out of the Brut Reserve, don’t miss out on the Rose!

Fernand Lemaire Champagne Brut NV
Approximately $59/btl

Available at Vic and Whit’s, Bleecker and Greer, and Browne Trading
For four generations, the family history of Champagne Fernand Lemaire has been in the emblematic village of Hautvillers, classified as a 1er Cru. In 1860 Fernand’s parents, Jeanne and Eugène, were already cultivating a few vines, but Eugène was first and foremost the village blacksmith.
Fernand realized the richness of his terroir and decided to devote himself entirely to the winegrowing profession. Independent by nature, he invested in his own press, his first vats and had his cellar dug into the chalk. In 1903, the first Fernand Lemaire Champagne was born. Fernand’s great-grandchildren, Hélène and her brother Benoît, have been running the family business since 2022. Today, they perpetuate the Champagne know-how as a family, and continue to reveal the excellence of their terroir.
Aroma: bright fresh lemon zest, white peach, some ripe pear, a little little faint hint of fresh baked bread, but it's not a particularly toasty brioche Champagne. It smells very sunny and happy and fun. A little bit of really fresh orange. Definitely elegant and poised but not sharp or aggressive smelling
Taste: lovely ripe lemon, white peach, fresh orange up front. It has very frothy refined persistent bubbles that fill the mid palate. It's crisp and fresh and nicely focused. This tastes very sunny and happy and friendly! As you move past the mid palate it picks up some gentle toast. There's white grape and a little bit of a dry prickly orange zest worked in. This is a really lovely focused poised and elegant Champagne; not too dry, not too minerally, not lush, creamy, and luxurious, but really perfectly put together and totally satisfying. Uplifting and delicious!

Victorieux Brut Tradition Champagne
Approximately $50
Available at Car Hop, RSVP, Via Vecchia, Treats, Back River Bistro, Bow St Beverage, and Twelve
The Victorieux comes from Ceric Guyot: a 3rd generation family estate in the Cotes de Sezanne at the southern edge of Champagne. This is 50/50 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The wine is aged on the lees for an impressive 5 years before disgorgement which really contributes to it's refinement and elegance. On top of that this has been in bottle resting and maturing for over 7 years now! It’s really impressive and deep and lovely.

Aroma: sunny hay, lemon, fresh orange/clementine, and just a little bit of toast

Taste: focused ,tart, tightly wound. Toasty- tasty, bit of salt on the finish. This is super well balanced- there's a lovey elegant orange flavor to the finish. The extra age this wine spent on the lees at the winery and then in the bottle after release really shows through in how fine it is.

Champagne Tarlant Rose 'Zero' Brut NV
Approximately $89/btl
Available Bleecker and Greer, Anju, Meridians, Browne Trading, Liquid Riot, Oak Hill Beverage, and Maine and Loire
The Tarlant family has been growing grapes in Champagne since the late 1600s. at the beginning of the 20th century Louis Tarlant was running the vineyards and also mayor of Oeuilly, a major town in Champagne. Champagne had been internationally famous for at least a century already, but there was no legal delimitation of what Champagne was and was not. While Louis was mayor the price of grapes dropped and grape farmers were struggling. They realized that the large Champagne houses were bringing in grapes and juice from other parts of France or even Portugal, fermenting it, and selling it as Champagne resulting in this extreme drop in the price the large houses were willing to pay for grapes. And so happened the Champagne Revolution. Louis became a leader of it. Farmers blocked roads, blockaded the large wineries, and lobbied the government. Finally in 1911 Champagne was created as an AOC and was required to be made from grapes grown in Champagne. Louis swore he would never sell a single grape to the big houses again and so had to start making wine on his own. He was one of the very first grower producers.
The farm is currently run by Benoit and his sister Melanie: the 12th generation of Tarlants to farm this land. They work very intensely in the vineyards and farm each small parcel separately to adapt to the specific needs of the land and exposure. They farm naturally and hands on vineyard labor is the only way to really be successful in the relatively cool and variable climate of Champagne. 
Aroma: dry peach, super elegant dry cherry, pink grapefruit, some background red rose. It's a gorgeous aroma of dried red fruit, flower petals, as well as some vivid intensity that comes across a little citrusy. It does also have some savory baked goods there in the background; some baking cherry pie hiding behind the fresh fruit. This is really impressively powerful and beautiful at the same time
Taste: dry, focused, peachy, beautiful bright strawberry. The bubbles are super fine but very persistent and frothy. There's some delicious subtle salt in the background of the mid palate, hidden behind the bubbles, but they make the wine more delicious and palate satisfying. The finish has some beautiful raspberry that comes back to you as the last lingering flavor. This is powerful and vivid and really grabs your attention but the flavors and integration and layering of the wine are so beautiful and deft. This is exceptional. I would describe this as a bigger more expressive rosé then the Billecart.

Jerome Arnoux Jura Cremant Elegance
Approximately $33/btl
Available at Blue Hill Wine Shop, Vessel and Vine, Cong tu Bot, Oxbow in Oxford, Juniper Kitchen, Quanto Basta, and Oak and Ember
Jerome started working in the local vineyards helping a neighbor at the age of 17 and spent 20 years working at various wineries in the Arbois. Jerome became assistant wine maker to the famous Stephane Tissot and worked for him until he decided to start his own winery. He already owned vineyards and now works 17 hectares. He uses organic principles and ferments with native yeast for the initial fermentation, then uses Champagne yeast for the fermentation in bottle. This is equal parts Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from vines that average 40 years old.Today Aroma: ripe apple, pear, some white peach, brioche.... it smells rich and ripe like baking pastry and fruit. There’s grapefruit but also a smell like almond croissant. It smells pretty lovely!
Taste: ripe pear and some rich juicy apple followed by super fine but very powerful frothy persistent bubbles that fill your palate and lift the wine up. The finish is rich and creamy. It's actually a flavor kind of like great real vanilla ice cream. Creamy in texture and mouth filling but also kind of creamy in the flavor and then with a hint of toasted vanilla to it. It's really delicious; rich and more powerful and creamier and broader than maybe any Champagne, but the focus and the effervescence are all very Champagne like. This a great value and would be an awesome choice as a pair for more powerful foods.

André Clouet Grande Reserve
Approximately $60
Available at Main St Provisions, RSVP, all the Rosemont Markets, Sawyer’s Specialties, Central Provisions, Bow St Market Freeport, Hunt and Alpine, Cong tu Bot, Black Birch, John Edwards, Friends and Family, Bleecker and Greer, and LB Kitchen
The Clouet family has been making wine for a very long time. So long in fact that they're not actually sure when they started! But they were the royal printers for Louis the 15th and also made Champagne for the royal court as a sideline. This is 100% Pinot Noirs (Blanc de Noirs) from the Clouet family's 20 hectares of grand cru vineyards around Bouzy. The wine has no contact with the skins, ferments at low temperatures, and then spends 48 months aging on the fine lees.  

Aroma: ooh, pretty fresh orange juice and yellow peach. A little bit of brioche. Not like full-on toasted bread...more like fresh baked bread

Taste: delicious lush Champagne with fine and relaxed bubbles. It's definitely fruit driven. Lots of ripe orange across the palate with just a hint of toasted almond or vanilla like praline at the finish.

Domaine André Clouet Silver Brut
Approximately $59
Available at
Aroma: honey, yellow peach, a little bit of toast, .... there's a little bit of melted butter. Lots of fruit and it smells fresh and vibrant but there's also a dimension that's a little creamy. Definitely also some golden raisin and fresh orange

Taste: bright zippy dry and racier than the grand reserve. Dancing energetic acidity that is nicely balanced by a little bit of salt in the mid palate and then a savory baked bread and cooked fruit dimension on the finish. It's sunny and lemony: Delicious and complex!

Domaine André Clouet Rosé
Approximately $70/ btl
Available at Treats, Bleeker and Greer, and Lincolnville General Store
100% Pinot Noir and in classic rose Champagne style this is a blend of juice made blanc de Noirs and then a small addition of juice that was vinified as red wine in order to get the color and taste exactly right. 50% Base wine from 2015, 42% “Classic Reserve”, 8% Andre Clouet Bouzy Rouge. Fermentation in stainless steel and oak barrels.

Aroma: pomegranate and pink peppercorn and dried cherry! It's a delicate and very pretty aroma... really interesting and unique as well though

Taste: pretty and citrusy strawberry followed by some dried cherry. The mid palate has a supple sneaky savory deliciousness and then the finish has a little bit more of a round toasty quality. This is excellent and delicious!

André Clouet Millesime 2015
Approximately $76
Available at Bow St Beverage Portland, Vessel and Vine, Treats, Bow St in Wells, and Tess Market
Elegant gorgeous nuanced vintage Champagne for $76! Where else can you find vintage Champagne for that price!? This is 100% Pinot Noir: 80% of the wine was fermented in stainless steel, with the remaining 20% occurred in Sauternes barrels. Aged 4 years prior to release. It's an incredible value for vintage Champagne.

Aroma: relaxed and elegant, a little bit of toasted brioche, a hint of vanilla, some fresh orange

Taste: This is delicious! It opens with bright fresh acidity and some lemon, but it's rich and golden at the same time. The bubbles are very fine but there's a real depth of flavor here. Not just straightforward toast or fresh bread, but beneath the peach and lemon and orange there's more depth and a savory sort of cooked food finish. All those flavors are really well integrated.

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