Description
The NV Brut Grand Siècle #20 is showing beautifully from magnum, mingling scents of pear, orange oil and clear honey with hints of smoke, toasted bread and dried white flowers. Medium to full-bodied, layered and fleshy, it’s open and expressive, with a lovely core of fruit and a long and penetrating finish. A blend of the 1999, 1997 and 1996 vintages, the #20 has attained a very appealing plateau of maturity. Michel Fauconnet observes that the vins clairs from 1997 included in the blend were almost exclusively Chardonnay: “Every year, it’s the Pinot Noir I worry about; I don’t want Pinot that will evolve too rapidly.”
- Country: France
- Region: Champagne
- Size: 1.5Ltr
- Alcohol by Vol: 12.0%
Varietal
Champagne Blend
The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn’t unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as ‘blanc de blanc’, meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or ‘blanc de noir’, which is made solely with Pinot Noir.
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