The ugly truth is that I – quite lazily – did not really want to write about Champagne cooperative Mailly (which takes its moniker, and the fruit from its Grand Cru vineyards, from the town of the same name). In fact, I felt so lazy about it, that I employed the writer’s laziest device (the…
Tag: wine review
“Living Patrimony” (Bollinger Champagne Recent Releases)
In theory, it ought to be easy to hate on the Champagne house Bollinger. They’re big (producing about 3 million bottles annually); they’re kitschy-famous (getting the royal warrant from the UK market in 1884, and then becoming the official Champers of agent 007); they’re fairly corporate (a staggering – and, one imagines, barely manageable –…
That *Other* Perrier (Joseph Perrier Champagne Recent Releases)
Jean-Claude Fourmon – president of the fourth-generation family-owned Joseph Perrier in Châlons-en-Champagne – doesn’t seem at all deterred by the fact that, in the U.S., his brand is probably best known as “that other Perrier” that not-as-many people have tasted. He’s quick with amusing witticisms, bordering on platitudes if not for his fantastic delivery; things…
Blanc de Blancs, In The Nude (Jacques Lassaigne Recent Releases)
If you’re in the bubbly business in the Aube (the southern region in France’s Champagne-Ardenne), then you have to make peace with the fact that, compared with the popular Épernay and Ay to the north, you’re basically the red-headed stepchild of Champagne. Unless you’re Emmanuel Lassaigne, who crafts the bubbly at Champagne Jacques Lassaigne. In…