About this WINE
Gaston Chiquet
The champagne grower-producer Gaston Chiquet has made a name for itself as one of the best. In a region with thousands of small producers, it is a credit to owners Antoine and Nicolas Chiquet.
Based in the evocatively named Dizy, the family first planted vines in 1746 but did not produce Champagne until 1935, when brothers Ferdinand and Gaston Chiquet took the bold step of setting up their own label, rather than merely selling grapes to the larger houses.
With 22 hectares of vineyards in the great villages of Ay, Mareuil-sur-Ay and Hautvillers in the Vallee de la Marne area of central Champagne, they currently produce 15,000 cases each year, from a blend of 45% Pinot Meunier, 35% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir.
Brut Champagne
Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines (their proportion and age varies by brand) from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine. Champagnes from a single vintage are labelled with the year reference and with the description Millésimé.
Non-vintage Champagnes can improve with short-term ageing (typically two to three years), while vintages can develop over much longer periods (five to 30 years). The most exquisite and often top-priced expression of a house’s style is referred to as Prestige Cuvée. Famous examples include Louis Roederer's Cristal, Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, and Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.
Recommended Producers : Krug, Billecart Salmon, Pol Roger, Bollinger, Salon, Gosset, Pierre Péters, Ruinart
Chardonnay
Chardonnay is often seen as the king of white wine grapes and one of the most widely planted in the world It is suited to a wide variety of soils, though it excels in soils with a high limestone content as found in Champagne, Chablis, and the Côte D`Or.
Burgundy is Chardonnay's spiritual home and the best White Burgundies are dry, rich, honeyed wines with marvellous poise, elegance and balance. They are unquestionably the finest dry white wines in the world. Chardonnay plays a crucial role in the Champagne blend, providing structure and finesse, and is the sole grape in Blanc de Blancs.
It is quantitatively important in California and Australia, is widely planted in Chile and South Africa, and is the second most widely planted grape in New Zealand. In warm climates Chardonnay has a tendency to develop very high sugar levels during the final stages of ripening and this can occur at the expense of acidity. Late picking is a common problem and can result in blowsy and flabby wines that lack structure and definition.
Recently in the New World, we have seen a move towards more elegant, better- balanced and less oak-driven Chardonnays, and this is to be welcomed.
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Description
Made up of 60% of Pinot Noir and 40% of Chardonnay and sourced from Dizy and Hautvillers, this well-named special wine comes from the richer end of the stylistic spectrum. Powerful in deference to the reputation of the vintage, the 2002 has notes of baked apple, black fruit and Bovril, a lively mousse and plenty of balancing acidity. Already drinking beautifully, the wine will soften gracefully over the next four to five years.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)
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