Quantcast

Monday, October 10, 2011

Ben's Bubbly: Pierre Péters Cuvée de Réserve

This past week marked the sixth month point in our endeavor of drinking a sparkling wine every week for one year. It also marked Ben's half birthday! The little guy is all smiles almost all the time. He now has a few different smiles including an adorable new smile where he scrunches his eyes and reveals his toothless upper jaw. Almost any time you talk to him he busts out one of his grins and giggles. While he loves playing with toys, including phones and remote controls, what he really wants is to play with the cats. They are starting to realize that he is mobile, but he still sneaks up behind them and gets a handful of tail, which is usually met with a squeal and a paw on the head.

We also had to make the switch from his co-sleeper to his crib. He is now able to rock and move his co-sleeper, as well as pull himself up on the sides and reach out. That also means he can fall out if we're not paying close attention.

NV Pierre Péters Cuvée de Réserve

For this week's Ben's Bubbly, we picked a popular grower Champagne that I had been wanting to try for some time. One of the nice things about many Récoltant-Manipulant (RM on the label) Champagne is that they often put the disgorgement date on the labels. Although most multi-vintage bubblies are made to be the same year in and year out, differences do occur and the wine does change with time in the bottle. If you know when the bottle was disgorged, you have a little bit more information about what you are drinking, and I think that this is a good thing. The code on label of this wine was L.0303, so I believe this was disgorged in March of 2003. Upon opening, the nose shows signs of oxidation (nuts, mushrooms, almost sherry-like) and the juice is a light golden straw color. Tthe palate is still full of the great acidity and bright lemons, grapefruit and apples I love in blanc de blancs. After three hours, the sherry aromas blow off and it's all toast and fruit. If there is ever a reason to decant Champagne, this one would definitely have benefited. Wish I had saved half the bottle for a second night to see if the wine opened up even more. I can't wait to find a newer bottle to see how a fresher wine shows. I think I might have a chance as there is a Champagne tasting at a local distributor's office this week. I'll report back on what I find there. 12% abv Purchased $44 Good/Very Good

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.