Boise Coop Wine Shop

Grower Champagne 12/10

The Champagne region in France is dominated by a handful of brand names. These négoçiants and coopératives produce 80% of the total output in Champagne, yet they own only 12% of the vineyards. They may, by law, purchase as much of their grapes or pressed juice or already made sparking wine (known as sur-lattes) as they wish from all over the region. And they bring to market a mass-produced commodity—the most successful processed agricultural product in human history—a Champagne made in a “house style.”

By contrast, Small Growers, or “récoltant-manipulants,” handcraft their limited quantities of Champagne from individual villages and parcels where the inherent qualities of the vineyards imprint themselves into the wines. These winemakers are brave souls in an industrialized age: growing, vinifying and bottling their own Champagne and offering it to the world as their life’s work.

Pierre Gimonnet (90% Chardonnay/10% Pinot noir)

With no fewer than 25 ha to his name, all in the Côte des Blancs and almost exclusively planted in Chardonnay, Didier Gimonnet has one of the most enviable domains in the region. There are 14 ha in the Premier Cru Cuis, and 12 ha in the Grands Crus Cramant and Chouilly. No less notable is the fact that in a region afflicted with generally young vine stocks, Gimonnet has 70% of his vines over 30 years old, of which some 40% are over 40 years old (the oldest of all, planted in the lieux-dits of Le fond du Bateau and Buisson in Cramant were planted in 1913). These are sappy, crunchy, refreshing champagnes of acupuncturally tonic qualities; the best is the non-dosed, vintage Cuvée Oenophile with its lingering, salty purity.

N.V. Brut 1er Cuis $48 mag $110

2000 Brut Oenophile $59

2002 Brut Paradoxe $52

2002 Special Club $79

2004 Brut Fleuron $54

2004 Special Club $69

1999 Brut V.V. Mag $169

Henri Goutorbe (70% Pinot Noir/ 25% Chardonnay/ 5 % Pinot Meunier)

Henri Goutorbe is one of the more important growers in Champagne. . . . Generally excellent rich, well-structured Champagnes—always satisfying to drink. Goutorbe’s Grand Cru Special Club is in a different class. These are serious, complex wines that age admirably. His Rose is a masterwork.

N.V. Brut Prestige $45

N.V. Rose Grand Cru $52

2000 Special Club $79

2002 Special Club $75

Pierre Peters ( 100% Chardonnay)

The always smiling and tremendously skillful François Peters controls 17.5 hectares, twelve of which lie in the very best parts of Le Mesnil. For several years grapes from the [80-year] old vines in Les Chétillons were included in the vintage wine, but nowadays they make a Cuvée Spéciale from grapes from this unique location. Mesnil’s wines take a long time to mature, but champagne from Peters offers from the start an accessible fruitiness that resembles tangerine and a large portion of butterscotch and nut aromas. With age they become majestic and deep as a water well. Pierre Peters is a hidden treasure of Champagne.

N.V. Blanc de Blancs $48 mag $110

2003 Brut Millesime $68

2002 Cuveee Special Les Chetillons $79

Marc Hebrart (75% Pinot Noir/ 25% Chardonnay)

“Hébrart’s wines have a broad appeal: if you like to think about your wines, they’re intellectually engaging enough to satisfy you; on the other hand, if you’re just looking to drink, they’re simply delicious. The wines are full and generous without being weighty, complex and soil-driven without being demanding. Overall, the entire range is of consistently high quality, and represents excellent value for the money.

N.V. Cuvee de Reserve $39 / 375s $24

N.V. Brut Selection $42

N.V. Brut Rose $45

2000 Special Club $68

2002 Special Club $68

Gaston Chiquet (20% Pinot Noir/ 40% Pinot Meunier/ 40% Chardonnay)

In 1919, two brothers, Fernand and Gaston Chiquet—winemakers born and bred—came together to create their house Chiquet Brothers. They were ‘pioneers’ in Champagne, the very first winemakers to take the initiative, bold at the time, to keep their grapes, turn them into Champagne and sell their own wine. Nicolas Chiquet planted his first vines in 1746, and since then eight generations have tilled Dizy’s soil. Gaston Chiquet registered the company in 1935 and expanded the property with land in Aÿ, Cumières and Hautvillers. Gaston Chiquet is best known for making the only blanc de blancs from the Pinot village of Aÿ. Pure fruit, delicious wines.

N.V. Brut Tradition $45 / 375s $22.50

N.V. Blanc de Blanc Mags $109

2000 Blanc de Blanc d’ay Mag $135

2000 Special Club $59

2002 Vintage Brut $52

Jean Laurent ( 75% Pinot Noir/ 25% Chardonnay)

This family with over 1000 years of history growing grapes in Champagne has now brought us the new generation of grower producer with Jean. Aging the wine a minimum of three years on the yeast in bottle for non-vintage wines and 10 years for vintage cuvees, this house id dedicated to producing high quality Champagne.

N.V. Blanc de Noirs $ 49

L. Aubry Fils (30% Pinot Noir/ 40% pinot meunier/ 30% Chardonnay)

In the heart of Petit Montagne de Reims, twin brothers Pierre and Philippe Aubry have shouldered a legacy dating from 1790, with 16.5 hectares from 60 individual locations. Today, Pierre holds a national diploma in enology and Philippe in biology; they run this small company in a highly innovative way. The yield is low and only “coeur de cuvée” is used for the vintage wines. The grapes are divided into five classes according to their quality, and a considerable amount is vinified in old, traditional 205-liter oak barrels.

N.V. Brut 1er cru $29.95 BEST BUY!

N.V. Brut Rose $54

H.Billiot (75% Pinot Noir/25% Chardonnay)

Considering Billiot uses virtually no dosage, they do not taste significantly dry. Billiot does not filter his wines, and they never undergo malolactic fermentation. That makes them very frisky when they’re first disgorged. Billiot seems to want liveliness most of all, as he can presume upon lavish and deep fruit flavors. His wines have marvelous stamina and brightness.

N.V. Brut Reserve $49 Mag $102

N.V. Brut Rose $54

N.V. Brut Julie $79

N.V. Brut Laetitia $85

2002 Vintage Brut $65

2004 Vintage Brut $59

Chartogne-Taillet (50% Pinot Noir/ 40% Chardonnay/ 10% Pinot Meunier)

Champagne Chartogne-Taillet is produced exclusively from grapes grown in the family’s vineyards at Merfy and neighboring Saint-Thierry and Chenay. Winemaker Philippe Chartogne was trained in Beaune where he learned that respect for the terroir means preserving old vines as long as possible, limiting yields and analyzing the soil of each parcel in respect of nature. The wines have a style that is immediately enjoyable from the gate.

N.V. Brut Cuvee St. Anne $38.99 SALE! Mag $89

20002 Cuvee Fiacre $64

2002 Brut $54

Jean Lallement et Fils (80% Pinot Noir/ 20% Chardonnay)

The Lallements love straightforward, unaffected, dry, rich wines. They have ample opportunities to make these wines from their 4.5 hectares in Verzy, Verzenay and Ludes. Eighty percent of the land is covered with Pinot Noir, and 20 percent is sown with Chardonnay. The average age of the vines is twenty six years old. The wines, which are very clean and dry are original, complex and distinctive, all from a young vigneron who’s restlessly improving every year. This, a tiny little winery producing all of 1700 cases, is showing how things should be done.

Brut Prestige $46

Brut Rose $54

Brut Reserve $54

Vilmart & Cie (60% Chardonnay/ 36% Pinot Noir/ 4 % Pinot Meunier)

Vilmart has quickly established cult status. . . . The firm was started in 1890 in Rilly and is now run by René and Laurent Champs. The grapes are of mere premier cru level, but the vinification is exceptional. Vilmart is one of the few growers that cultivate their grapes organically and have most of the grape juice ferment in large oak casks (foudres), and the rest—ninety barrels in total—in small one-, two- and three-year-old barrels from Allier. All the wines lie in the barrel for ten months. The perfectly pure champagnes that Vilmart produces from Rilly-la-Montague and Villers-Allerand all have a high, fine acidity due to the avoidance of malolactic fermentation. Since young Laurent took over from his father in 1991, the company has become one of the true gems with the perfect wine, Coeur de Cuvée, as its most brilliant star.

N.V. Brut Grand Cellier $65

N.V. Rose Cuvee Rubis $65

2004 Grand Cellier D’or $72

1999 Coeur de Cuvee Mag $249

1997 Cuvee Creation Mag $279

Egly-Ouriet ( Pinot noir with a bit of Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier)

These wines are as serious as wine can get in Champagne. All wines are aged in small oak barresl making the cellar seem more like Burgundy than most Champagne houses. Francis Egly says “ first I make wine, then a make bubbles” I feel these wines are best with a few years in the bottle after disgorgement as they are very low or no dosage wines.

N.V. Brut Tradition Grand Cru $65

N.V. Brut Rose Grand Cru $89

N.V. Blanc De Noirs V.V. $132

2003 Vintage $118

2000 Vinage $120

2000 Vintage V.V. Mags $349

Note:

Dosage: the final addition to sparkling wine after disgorgement and before the final cork and wire bale are in place. Usually a combination of sterile juice and syrup that will determine the final style of the wine ( brut, extra dry, etc).

Disgorgement: after the second fermentation which creates the bubbles in Champagne, there is a small amount of sediment from the yeast that must be removed from the bottle. This is done by freezing the neck of an upside down bottle with the “lees” or spent yeast gathered against the cap. When the cap is removed the frozen yeast pops out ant then the dosage is added before the final cork.

N.V. : Non-Vintage.

Special Club: The designation of a selection of the best wine from the vintage for the grower.