Champagne isnโt just for celebrations!
Dear Extra Brut Friends,
โChampagne isnโt just for celebrations!โ Itโs almost a motto around here. And itโs true: Champagne is just about the most versatile wine in the world and the easiest to preserve in the fridge (all you need is a decent wine stopper and it will keep for days or longer). Which makes it a wine to always have on hand โ indeed, to always have on the go.
And yet, Champagne is DEFINITELY the most celebratory drink in the world. The ceremonial โPop!โ of the cork. The elegant string of bubbles rising in the glass. The exciting bouquet, beautiful texture of mousse and acidity, and the mouthwatering flavors. There is no better way to celebrate.
And this is December, the month of celebrations.
So this month we have two very special, supremely celebratory wines. Donโt get us wrong: theyโre interesting too! But these are wines that when you open them will hit you first in the โWow, is that yummyโ bone, long before they hit you in the โoh how fascinating!โ bone. If you arenโt careful you may have finished the bottle before you get past the classiness, the elegance, and the sheer joy of the bubbles and can even start to think about terroir or technique.
We hope you have occasion to open these wines to celebrate the best of times with people you love. See you in the New Year.
Cheers,
Your Friends at Flatiron Wines
P.S. Have a question or comment you'd like to share?
Our thoughts on this selection
It isnโt just a Barbie thing: Pink bubbles are supremely celebratory. And the Deutz 2015 Rosรฉ is beautiful to look at and will immediately mark any day as worth celebrating. But it's for much more than just show.
Three of the four Champagnes weโve featured so far in Extra Brut have been from growers. And the one Grand Marques Champagne weโve shared, Ruinartโs 2018 Singulier, is a wine that shows that the classic Champagne houses have learned from the rise of the Growers as they adapt to many of the same changes that have made the Growers movement so successful.
This monthโs first selection is not like that. It is a classic Grand Marques that shows why those great Champagne Houses managed to define the world of sparkling wine over centuries. Deutz in particular has been much-loved since the 19th century for a house style which combines vinosity and finesse. This rosรฉ is classic Deutz.
Based in the Pinot Noir-focused village of Aรฟ, just about half of Deutzโs vines are Pinot Noir. That probably contributes to the vinous feeling their wines can convey. The Pinot content of the Rosรฉ Millesime is even higher โ over 50% of the base wine plus about 10% still red Pinot Noir.
It is that still Pinot that brings the color and further complexity and depth on both the nose and palate. Since this is the first time weโve tasted a Rosรฉ Champagne together, itโs worth taking a moment to consider how vignerons can color a Champagne pink. Most rosรฉs in France are made by allowing the grape juice and skins to sit together for at least a short while after the grapes are crushed. In Champagne they call this technique โRosรฉ de Maceration,โ since the skins macerate in the proto-wine.
Rosรฉ de Maceration can make delicious rosรฉs with a very fine and complex expression of terroir and vintage. But there are downsides too. The timing is a challenge to manage and, depending on the quality of the skins, the wine can take on a slightly rustic edge. So, many winemakers, including Deutz, prefer to make their rosรฉ by adding a touch (5%-20%) of still red wine when assembling their final wine, a technique called (logically enough) โrosรฉ dโassemblage.โ
Deutzโs addition of Pinot doesnโt just give the lovely, pale pink color. It also gives the wine a depth and elegant structure that complements Deutzโs other finesse-maxing choices, including 100% stainless steel winemaking (no wood at all!) and full malolactic fermentation (moving the more bracing, malic acidity into a more succulent register). The combination of all steel winemaking and full malos is fairly unusual in Champagne, and is one of the many attributes that gives Deutz its distinctive style.
It would be easy to guess that a pink champagne is less serious than white โ sexy eye candy but not worthy of the serious appreciation classic Champagnes deserve. But thatโs just not true. The hint of color from the skins โ whether from the addition of red wine or a limited exposure to the grape skins themselves, adds a dimension and, in this case, vinosity (meaning kind of like regular wine), that complements Deutzโs house style. The flavors help it pair with a surprising range of foods: from pre-dinner snacks (salty, sweet, whatever), through fish courses even up to roast capon, this will be magic.
Assemblage also can make a Champagne worth aging. The Deutz 2015 rosรฉ was a charmer on release but now, with a few extra years in the bottle, we think itโs really hitting its stride. The bright-fruited berry pleasure is still all there, but the savory side is starting to show a little more. This Champagne is fun and particularly celebratory in all its pinkness. But itโs also very much a wine that will continue to evolve into greater and greater complexity.
Of course, thatโs not why we picked it for Extra Brutโฆ that was so that you could open it and enjoy now! So go nuts and enjoy it this December. And if you decide you want to lay some down to be able to follow it over the years weโve got you covered you can re-order at 10% off or 15% off on 3+ bottles through Tuesday, December 31st 2024.
Our thoughts on this selection
Nothing does more to make a wine ageworthy than old vines and a great vintage. The 2012 Cuvรฉe Exhilarante has both going for it. 2012 was a truly great vintage in Champagne and this selection of Le Brun Servenayโs oldest vines (up to 100 years old!) will, sans doutes, age over the long haul.
But boy is it delicious now! After all, it is already more than 10 years old. It already shows an impeccable balance of bracing Cote des Blanc chalky salinity and the emerging umami notes that time gives to these wines, all threaded through with refined Chardonnay fruit.
Thatโs a hard won-balance. Le Brun Servenay is based in Avize and Cramant, probably the two chalkiest Cote des Blanc villages. The wines from here have been very important in many of the greatest Grand Marques blends, where they bring a piercing, mineral definition to the final, assembled Champagne.
Many of our favorite Cote des Blanc-based new wave growers have taken a different tack to achieve balance. Often they harvest later (more ripeness brings more and rounder fruit). Sometimes they follow the legendary Anselme Selosses and work in a more oxidative style (which takes certain edges off the wine and reveals the umami that otherwise can take years to come to the front). Many allow the wines to go through malo, like the Deutz.
But Patrick Le Brun works in the classic manner. Traditional (and fastidious) farming. No malo. No oxidative techniques. No high-tech corner cutting in the cellar; everything is done by hand. And the result is a supremely classy Champagne, wine that is just as pure an expression of that chalky northern terroir as you could hope for, but with all the yeasty richness and beautiful fruit your friends and loved ones will expect when celebrating. It has the poise and complexity to be worth drinking on its own but itโs another Champagne that will elevate so many dishes โ none more than a shellfish course (feast of the seven fishes, anyone?).
Indeed, this is the kind of Champagne that somehow makes any event feel that much more momentous, that much more celebratory โ whether you open it before a meal, with dinner, or after..
Weโre ever so grateful youโve invited our selections into your home for the holidays and we hope you love these bottles as much as we do.
A guide to the best bubbles in the world and what makes them different from the Grandes Marques
Champagne is the worldโs most famous sparkling wine. Hailing from the Champagne regions of France, its biggest names are among the biggest names in wine: Moet, Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot, Cristal.
But thereโs another side to Champagne: a universe of small-scale producers preserving ancient family farming traditions and bottling wines youโve never heard of.
These are the Grower Champagnes.
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