Casual night with four excellent wines!
Maison Piper-Heidsieck "Rare" Champagne Brut Millesime 2008
The history of the "Rare" bottle dates back to 1885 when Piper-Heidsieck made a very exclusive cuvée to mark its 100th anniversary. This special bottle was presented to Queen Marie Antoinette of France. It was crafted by Fabergé, the famous jeweler of Tsar Nicholas II, known for his elaborate jeweled eggs. The design was majestic, decorated with white gold, diamonds, and lapis lazuli gemstones.
A century later, the first "Rare" cuvée was produced in 1976. The bottle featured ornamentation by Parisian jewelers Van Cleef & Arpels, clearly inspired by the original Fabergé design. Later editions were created by Arthus Bertrand, offering a more subdued but still elegant and stylish appearance.
In the past 49 years since its creation, the "Rare" cuvée has only been produced in the best vintages, reflecting its name: 1976, 1979, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2013, as well as in rosé in 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2014.
The 2008 vintage, released in 2021, does not feature the name Piper Heidsieck on the bottle or front label, as since 2018, "Rare" has been sold as a separate brand from the rest of Piper-Heidsieck champagnes, similar to how Moët & Chandon markets "Dom Pérignon" independently from its main wines.
Originating from an exceptional vintage in Champagne, Piper-Heidsieck's prestige cuvée "Rare" 2008 has been crafted from grapes sourced from some of the finest parcels available to the house. The 2008 vintage's backbone comes from the Montagne de Reims, offering intensity, complexity, and minerality, balanced by Chardonnay from grand cru villages in the Côte des Blancs and Pinot Noir from Ambonnay. These villages also supply grapes for some of the world's most highly sought-after champagnes, including Krug and Salon.
The resulting champagne is stunning, showcasing the exceptional qualities of the vintage. Besides its pale golden color and fine, small, lively bubbles, it immediately bursts with energy, freshness, and crispness in the nose, with expressive aromas of yellow and orange fruits, citrus, nuts, spices, and mineral nuances. The palate is fresh, clean, complex, and layered, with a lovely toastiness and richness of aroma and flavor from extended aging on the lees (about 13 years). No wood is involved in the process, but you still detect some vanilla and nutty notes mingling with pear, exotic fruits, and coconut, enhanced by citrus nuances that expand nicely from the attack through the lingering finish. Superb!
Domaine Michel Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru "Les Chaumées" "Clos de la Truffière", Burgundy 2021
Domaine Michel Niellon is a well-respected producer of white wines in Chassagne-Montrachet, Côte de Beaune, Burgundy. The estate is known for its classic, mineral-driven, and age-worthy Chardonnays, especially its Premier and Grand Cru bottles. The wines are made with an emphasis on showcasing the terroir of each vineyard, balancing sharp minerality with rich, ripe fruit.
Founded in the 19th century by Léon Niellon, the estate was expanded by Michel Niellon, who started working with his father Marcel in 1957. They have produced more than 50 exceptional vintages. The domaine began bottling in the 1960s, building a reputation for quality. From the original 4-hectare estate in Chassagne-Montrachet, Michel established a notable reputation by making rich, ripe Premier and Grand Cru white Burgundies, as well as a small amount of excellent Premier Cru red. Today, three generations of the Niellon family work at the domaine.
With the help of his son-in-law, Michel Coutoux, who joined him in 1991, Niellon has increased the estate’s production by acquiring new vineyards and expanding the winery. His grandson, Matthieu Bresson, also joined the winery after graduating from La Lycée Viticole in Beaune. Each generation brings its own knowledge and expertise to produce the finest wines. The winery is now managed by Michel’s son-in-law, Michel Coutoux, and his grandchildren, Mathieu and Lucie, with 8 hectares of vineyards, all in Chassagne-Montrachet, including small holdings in prestigious Grand Crus like Bâtard-Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet.
The Niellons spend significant time in the vineyard, where they use sustainable methods such as plowing for weed control, avoiding herbicides, and employing lutte raisonnée for pest management. The family prioritizes early harvests to maintain acidity, often choosing to pick first in the village, where grapes ripen quickly due to their proximity to houses and benefit from slightly warmer temperatures than in the vineyards, causing them to ripen faster.
Grapes are hand-harvested, fermented naturally in stainless steel tanks, and aged in French oak barrels (25% new) to blend terroir expression with richness. Recent tests include using concrete egg-shaped vats. The estate can produce up to 50,000 bottles annually, including Bourgogne Chardonnay, village-level Chassagne-Montrachet, and Premier Cru wines like Clos Saint-Jean, La Maltroie, and Les Vergers. Today, Domaine Michel Niellon’s wines, made in small batches from carefully farmed parcels, are regarded as benchmarks of classic white Burgundy, known for their minerality, elegance, precision, and longevity, qualities enhanced by their rarity.
Made from century-old vines planted in the "Clos de la Truffière," a walled enclosure at the top of the slope of the Premier Cru "Les Chaumées" vineyard, neighboring St-Aubin, the 2021 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru "Les Chaumées" "Clos de la Truffière" is a beautiful wine. The nose offers complex aromas with lime peel, green apple, mineral notes, and flint nuances. The palate is fresh, textured, and ample, with extra richness from the old vines enhancing the wine with both density and length, reminiscent of grand cru quality. The finish is long and fresh, displaying high acidity and a racy, tensile style, characteristic of the vintage. Once again, despite the challenging conditions of the vintage, Domaine Michel Niellon has succeeded in producing a wine with finesse, complexity, and excellent aging potential. Well done!
Domaine Jean Grivot Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru, Burgundy 2018
Domaine Jean Grivot is a winery in the Côte d'Or, Burgundy, known for its rich, aromatic Pinot Noir wines with bright red fruit flavors.
The Grivot family originally came from the Jura region and had been growing vines since the mid-17th century. Just before the French Revolution, they moved to Vosne-Romanée. The estate was expanded in the early 1900s by Gaston Grivot, who sold some of his lesser plots to buy a parcel in the renowned Clos de Vougeot in 1919. Established in the 1930s, Domaine Grivot became one of the first Burgundy domaines to bottle and sell its own wines. Jean Grivot took over from his father, Gaston, in 1955.
Today, the estate is owned by Jean's son Étienne, who took over from his father in 1987, along with his wife Marielle Grivot (Patrick Bize's sister, of Domaine Simon Bize). Their daughter, Mathilde Grivot, the fifth generation, has been the winemaker since 2017, succeeding her parents. Mathilde offers a new perspective while upholding the longstanding traditions of the Grivot family.
Located in Vosne-Romanée, the domaine exclusively makes wines from its own vineyards. Grivot owns about 15 hectares (37 acres) of land across Vosne-Romanée and Nuits-Saint-Georges, including plots in Echézeaux, Richebourg, and a notable 1.9-hectare (4.6-acre) parcel in the famous Clos de Vougeot vineyard. The vineyards are farmed organically (though not certified) and planted mostly with Pinot Noir, with a few rows of Chardonnay used for Bourgogne Blanc.
All of Grivot's vineyards are planted at high densities to promote competition among the vines, which helps reduce yields. This reduction is further supported by green harvests, which lower crop size to improve quality. The vines are all 40 years or older.
At the winery, the bunches are 95 percent destemmed and then undergo four to six days of cold maceration before fermentation in stainless steel, with no more pigeage after fermentation begins. Grivot's wines are generally aged in oak barrels for 15 to 18 months with varying amounts of new oak: around 25 percent for village wines, up to 60 percent for premier cru, and as much as 70 percent for grand cru. Wines are bottled without fining or filtration following lunar cycles and atmospheric pressure.
Having tasted it over the past few years, the 2018 Clos Vougeot was initially quite tight and closed, but it is now starting to open up and seems much more approachable. Although the vintage was marked by a warm, dry growing season that led to early flowering and a relatively early harvest, resulting in wines with concentrated fruit and notable ripeness, and some concern about a lack of freshness, some producers like Domaine Grivot managed to maintain balance, creating juicy red wines with both richness and vibrancy. The nose is still a bit closed, but opened up after about 15 minutes of aeration. The medium-bodied palate displays dense flavors of red and dark fruits, along with earthy and slightly savory nuances, supported by enough acidity to balance the fruit and tannins. The finish is a little dry but still quite good, offering plenty to enjoy.
Chateau Haut-Bailly Grand Cru Classe Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux 2009
Since I already dedicated a detailed post to Chateau Haut-Bailly last month (read it here), I will simply describe the wine. As I've mentioned many times before, I love Haut-Bailly. It is one of my favorite Pessac-Léognan wines. Beyond its opaque color, it offers enticing aromas of blackcurrants and blackberries combined with earthy, graphite, tobacco, and spice notes. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is dark, ripe, rich, layered, elegant, generous, and complex, with excellent structure and texture, a long finish, and some tannins that will need more time to fully integrate. I had to double decant it to enhance its aroma and remove sediments. It mellowed out after 20 minutes. I loved it.
Like my grandfather used to say (for food): "Ça ne peut pas être mauvais, il n'y a que de bonnes choses dedans!"
Same for these wines; they can not be bad since there are only good things in them! 😋👍🍷
Cheers! Santé!
Dom
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