The Perfect Cellar

I received some samples from a new online wine merchant called The Perfect Cellar. The idea behind this venture is carefully selected wines from lesser known French regions, making them available to the public in limited quantities.

Their website includes mixed case offers, wine gift packs, wine guides and features on the Chateaux that supply them. One particular selling point is that the wines are frequently featured in Michelin starred restaurants. In particular, there are six properties featured: Domaine Seguela (Roussillon), Domaine Bernard Baudley (Chinon), Brisson Jonchere (Champagne), Mas Amiel (Roussillon, Maury), Henri Bourgeois (Loire) and Chateau Parsac (Bordeaux, right-bank).

The Chateau Parsac is actually made by Chateau Pitray of Cotes de Castillon, which I rate as a great value Bordeaux region.

Another selling point - price. To quote the website: 'You no longer need to spend £££ to enjoy the Luxurious French Wines'. I'm not totally convinced everything The Perfect Cellar sells is a bargain. For example, they offer a gift pack of 2 bottles of 2006 Chateau Parsac for £39.99, knocked down from the 'regular' price of £69.88. This is quite frankly misleading. The wines themselves are worth no more than £8 or £9 a bottle - since Pitray's Grand Vin 2005 was only £8.99 a couple of years ago at Majestic. So after the wine, you're basically paying £20 for a box and a bunch of useless wine accessories (perhaps with the exception of the waiter's friend corkscrew). To be fair, you can buy 6 bottles of the Parsac for £60, which sounds reasonable, but not a bargain.

However, the regions represented here are in fact good value ones. Castillon and Roussillon are ones that I'm familiar with, rarely experiencing a bad bottle and never paying over the odds. Loire and Champagne less so, but the samples I tried were pretty good.

So, onto the wines.

Henri Bourgeois, Petit Bourgeois Sauvignon Blanc 2008. VdP Loire Valley. £53.94 / 6 bottles: Expressive, competent wine. Not overbearing a la NZ, but lots of SB character nonetheless. Good acidity. Well made. 3/5

Brisson Jonchere '3 Cépages' Champagne NV. £18.99 / bottle: '3 Cépages' translates to 3 varieties, so I'm assuming that this contains all three Champagne grapes. I could be wrong however, as there is no blending information on the label, The Perfect Cellar's website, or Brisson Jonchere's website. No matter though - I think it resembled a more Chardonnay dominated blend, with crisp, appley character. Bright and refreshing, this is my kind of Champagne. 3.5/5

Mas Amiel Maury 2008. AOC Maury. £95.40 / 6 bottles: This is a port-like fortified wine from the South of France. I should have decanted this, as it was quite closed. Still it showed quality but I will withhold a rating.

All in all The Perfect Cellar offers higher quality, cheaper alternatives to the consumer. Vintage Maury instead of Vintage Port, VdP Loire Sauvignon Blanc instead of Sancerre, and Cotes de Castillon instead of Pomerol. I applaud their choice of regions as they offer similar quality to much more well known, more expensive appellations. Most serious wine lovers are aware of these 'lesser' regions, but it's good to see a merchant concentrating on them. Just stay away from the gift packs!

Heidsieck £ Co. Monopole Blue Top Brut NV

I saw this at Sainsbury's for £11.99 and decided to give it a try. I knew it was the introductory house blend, and I also have some vintage 'Gold Top' from the same producer. I'm not mad about the Gold Top, purchased last Christmas from Majestic. It's OK but didn't leave much of an impression. Maybe it needs more time, maybe I don't like Pinot-based blends so much, who knows. Either way I thought for £11.99 this was worth a try.

I actually quite liked it. It is a Pinot-based blend and is rich and honeyed, almost sweet, and has characteristics of bottle aged wine in the blend. I was pleasantly surprised. I served the 2 bottles I bought to guests at my son's birthday party (the parents, not the kids), and everyone seemed to really like it. The only reason I'm not running out and buying a case of 12 is because I haven't decided what to buy for my Christmas wines and don't want to blow the budget.

Heidsieck & Co. Monopole

Blue Top NV

Epernay, Champagne AOC, France

Sainsbury's

£11.99 (£27.99)

3.5/5

G.H. Mumm and Perriet-Jouët Champagne Assembly

This was a PR event put on by Pernod Ricard, the owner of Champagne houses Mumm and Perrier-Jouet. I decided to attend not to be wined and dined, but because it included workshops that promised to enlighten me about Champagne and food-matching and the process of blending.

Unfortunately, I did more wining than dining and by the time the final workshop came around, I was incapable of absorbing what the speaker was saying. However all is not lost, and I blame my discovery of the wonderful Mumm de Cramant for my failure to fully communicate the proceedings.

The day was to be organized as such: there was to be an open tasting of several Champagnes from both houses, and I was booked into two workshops, one focused on Champagne and food-matching, and the other on the blending that goes into the crafting of Mumm Cordon Rouge NV. Both are topics that I know next to nothing about, and it seemed a good opportunity to learn.

I started the day with a mid-morning snack, and left for the Assembly around 1 PM. However, when I arrived they had laid out a load of canapes, each matched with a particular Champagne. The first one I tried was Mumm de Cramant, paired with scallops with a cauliflower pureé. The Champagne was delicious, and I worked my way through all the wines with gusto.

Next, a workshop that I wasn't scheduled to attend began, and all non-attendees left the room. Now was the time to perform the 'open tasting', which was set in a mezzanine-type structure overlooking the main room where the workshop was taking place. I was fortunate to have the wines to myself, as everyone else was apparently having lunch just above me in a room filled with hushed voices and the tinkling of silverware. It was only after the advice of one of the PR staff that I was welcome to eat, but by that time I was halfway through tasting the wines and my first workshop was starting in half an hour, so I had little time to waste on lunch.

Again, the standout was the Mumm de Cramant. The one person who did spend some time tasting the wines seemed to be a drinks industry veteran, and when I asked him if any of them stood out for him, he pointed to the Mumm de Cramant, saying it had been a favourite of his for years. And keep in mind the range on display also included the prestige Belle Epoque range, which is basically twice the price.

I finished tasting the wines, and then headed downstairs to attend the first workshop, which was Champagne and food matching. Let me sum this up quickly - a chemist uses gas chromatography to find aromatic compounds in the wine. Next, food with the same chemical signature is then paired. Fairly simple concept and I guess it works - all of the matches seemed to work. I kind of wish they offered more general matching rules - like what would go better with a Pinot Noir based Champagne as opposed to a Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs. Perhaps they did - this was about the point where I started to daydream. Another thing - the food pairings where the exact same ones they did with the canapes when I walked in, so I had extra impetus not to pay attention.

Next up was the blending workshop - the 'Chefs de Caves Masterclass'. All I can remember about this was being served multiple vintages of Belle Epoque from various Magnums and Jeroboams. After tasting each one (OK - possibly drinking each one) I noticed halfway through that my ultra-serious Japanese sommelier table-mates were in fact only sniffing the wines and furiously scribbling notes, and that I hadn't been paying attention to anything the speaker was saying (it was Perrier-Jouët Chef de Cave Hervé Deschamps and Mumm Chef de Cave Didier Marotti). My lack of food intake had caught up with me, and I was quite useless as a journalist at this point.

Like I mentioned previously though, I did discover one great wine: the Mumm de Cramant.

Produced using 100% Chardonnay from the Grand Cru commune of Cramant, this champagne is unique as it is made with a lower pressure than other Champagnes. It is very pure, crisp and refreshing, something I find lacking in Pinot Noir based Champagne, and it is becoming apparent to me that I prefer this Blanc de Blancs style. The other NV offerings paled in comparison to it, and to be honest the Belle Epoque range didn't do much for me. The Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs seemed to be everyone's favourite though, as people from the dining room kept coming down and refilling their glasses with it. It had the properties of an aged Chardonnay (it was the 2000 vintage) but I felt it lacked the freshness of a younger wine.

Mumm de Cramant retails for about £40 / bottle, and I reckon it is just as good as Champagnes twice this price, including Perrier-Jouet's Belle Epoque range. It's not easy to find though, a search on Wine Searcher only yielded three results, but that should be enough to get you started!

Sainsbury's Brut Rosé Champagne

Continuing on with our tradition of drinking rosé wine while watching the Formula One race, Random Aussie Bloke upped the ante by bringing over this Sainsbury's own-label pink Champagne.

It's actually made by Duval-Leroy, of which I am a fan. To be honest, I've only ever had their 2002 vintage Blanc de Blancs, but I thought it was one of the best value sparkling wines I've ever had (at the offer price that is).

This rosé is a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and is pretty good, notable the lively acidity and strawberry flavours. I'm not a Champagne expert, but I think it's safe to say that it's good value at £19.99. Rosé Champagne can be a bit overpriced I think, but this certainly isn't.

Sainsbury's

Brut Rosé Champagne

Champagne AOC, France

£19.99

3/5

Duval-Leroy Blanc de Blancs Vintage Champagne 2004

This is a contender for the Champagne deal of the Christmas season. There were all sorts of stories swirling around about the possible availability of cheap Champagne this Christmas, to an extent they were true. Vintage Champagne for under £15, and from Waitrose?

There's certainly nothing wrong with the wine. Quite the contrary actually, I thought it was lovely. Very fine mousse, tiny bubbles, elegant. I thought it was light, crisp and very refreshing, if not slightly tart. I've bought a couple of bottles, but I'm extremely tempted to go buy a bunch more - we're not going to see these prices again for another year.

Duval-Leroy

Blanc de Blancs Vintage 2004

Champagne, France

Waitrose

£14.99 (£29.99)

4/5

Waitrose Brut NV Champagne

This was my Champagne of choice for opening at midnight on New Year's Eve 2008.  It's a perfect choice:  it's well made like all Waitrose Champagnes (by Piper & Charles Heidsieck), it's very reasonably priced and it's available in magnums, perfect for a party!

By the time midnight rolled around this was our third bottle of fizz, and it was a festive atmosphere so I can't be too detailed about palate, etc., but it was a nice Champagne, and I'd definitely buy it again for a party or any other event that requires large format bottles.  It's a little cheaper than the multi-award winning Blanc de Blancs, so it's also an ideal candidate for a value Champagne if one is needed.

Waitrose Brut NV

Champagne, France

Waitrose

£32.99 (magnum)

3/5

Pol Roger Brut Reserve NV Champagne

Pol Roger Brut NV seems to be one of the more appreciated NV Champagnes out there, by all the wine writers anyways.  I obtained a bottle a year ago, and decided to open it on New Year's Eve.

I think the best way to communicate my thoughts on this wine is with a bit of context.

I (and my friends) drink a lot of sparking wine, and I've been wondering lately if my palate is really sensitive enough to tell the difference between actual Champagne (produced in Champagne) and other sparkling wines.  I even hosted a tasting to get to the bottom of this, and it was inconclusive, perhaps because of the (high) quality of the non-Champagne sparkling wines we tasted.

Well after tasting this Pol Roger, and then following it up with Cloudy Bay Pelorus NV (a high quality New Zealand sparkler) I can definitely say yes, I can tell the difference.  The difference was like night and day.  The Pol Roger was rich, nutty and smooth, and it made the Pelorus seem watery, rough, and unsophisticated.  I've had Pelorus a few times before, and while I wasn't mad about it, I thought it was OK.  I certainly wouldn't have described it as I just did.  All of this leads me to conclude that Pol Roger Brut Reserve NV is a darned good non-vintage Champagne.

Unfortunately you are not going to find this in the discount shelves at the end of the supermarket aisles.  It goes for around £30 a bottle.  I'd say if you wanted to splash out this is a good a bottle as any to buy.

Pol Roger

Brut Reserve NV

Widely available

~£30

4/5

Waitrose Bredon Brut NV Champagne

I'm not really sure what the point of this Champagne is.  It's made Piper & Charles Heidsieck, who also produce a Brut NV, a Blanc de Blancs, and a vintage Champagne for Waitrose.  They are all good value, and the Bredon is the least expensive of the lot.  Perhaps this is just to satisfy a price point, the "bargain basement" Champagne.

Either way, it's pretty decent.  It didn't blow my socks off, but where else would you find a Champagne made by a decent producer for under £15? For a second opinion, it also usually gets a least a commendation in Decanter magazine tastings, if not a medal.  

Bredon Brut NV

Champagne, France

Waitrose

£12 (~£15)

3/5

Waitrose Blanc de Blancs NV Champagne

This Champagne has been performing very well in Decanter magazine's blind tastings recently. I believe it won the trophy for the NV Champagne category in the 2007 DWWA (Decanter World Wine Awards), and in 2008 it received a 5 star rating in a NV Champagne blind tasting. It is made for Waitrose by Champagne house Charles Heidsieck. It is a Blanc de Blancs (or Blankety-Blank as my better half calls it), meaning it's made entirely from the white-skinned Chardonnay grape.

It has a nose that reminded me of fresh cream (?!), lots of small bubbles and a medium finish that had an almost dirt-like flavour (not a bad thing). Definitely more complex than the cheaper sparklers that I usually drink. Good stuff.

Is it worth £20? Who knows. Supermarket own-label Champagne seems to be the best value for money choice out there these days (Waitrose's isn't the only one that scores well in these tastings), and if you've got the money and want something decent these won't let you down. However, unless you're a wine geek, a supermarket branded bottle may not be terribly impressive to those expecting a luxury item, but that's their loss.

Waitrose
Blanc de Blancs NV Champagne
Champagne, France
£19.99
3.5/5

Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial NV

Well, what can you say about this? Moët & Chandon is probably one of the world's most recognizable brands, and the image of their brut non-vintage champagne is probably what most people conjure up when Moët is mentioned.

For me, sparkling wine is a convenience. It comes in handy, whether it's for an aperitif, a gift, a desert wine, a celebration or even just for the heck of it. It's versatile. It's also expensive: it's labour intensive to produce, it requires cellaring, and it usually has the kind of markup reserved for luxury goods, especially if it's Champagne.

The taste? Meh. I'm usually pretty underwhelmed, probably because I rarely, if ever, pay more than £15 for a bottle, whether it's Champagne or not. I just can't afford to pay more.

Having said all that, this particular Champagne is noticeable a step up from non-Champagne region sparkling wines. It's just of a different class. Fine mousse, moreish flavours, and a refreshing crispness that other sparkling wines lack.

It usually retails for £20 - £30. I don't think it's worth the money. But if you can get it cheaper (I got mine at a Virgin Wines internet auction for about £14 a bottle) then it's a perfectly good example of a well made Champagne that won't break the bank.

Moët & Chandon
Brut Impérial NV
Champagne, France
Widely available
3.5/5