Waitrose Brut Special Reserve Vintage 2004

From - Champagne, France
Grape - Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay
Alcohol - 12.5%
Available from - Waitrose
Price - £30.99

Appearance - Clear; lemon-green; medium intensity.  Significant viscosity shown when swirling.

Nose - Clean; medium intensity; developing; autolytic aromas (yeasty), apples, limes.

Palate - medium+ acid, medium intensity, medium+ length, medium body; medium alcohol medium mousse.

Balance - 7  Length - 9  Intensity - 6  Complexity - 7

Decanter.com (wine enthusiast's magazine) gives 2004 Champagne 4 out of 5, and describes wines from that year as of 'outstanding quality with excellent balance and fruity acidity'.

It was exciting to have the opportunity (albeit at my own expense!) to taste and analyse a 2004 Champagne.  Although typically for Champagne this is rather dry and acidic, so would not be to everyone's taste, but I am enamoured by the lovely, warm, autolytic flavours and excellent length.  This is a high quality wine at a good price.

Autolysis - Champagne

Champagne and Cava makers carry out secondary fermentation in the bottle, adding some extra yeast and sugar, following the primary fermentation in vats.  When the yeast dies, it goes through autolysis, also called 'self-digestion'.  Enzymes from the yeast cells are released, and they break down the cells, and release proteins and polysaccharides into the wine.

Leaving the dead yeast in the wine is called 'Sur Lie ageing' (you may have seen the words Sur Lie on a bottle of Loire Muscadet previously).

This process adds complexity to the drink, such as creamy mouth-feel; bready, toasty, yeasty flavours and reduced astringency.

Sur Lie you can't be serious?  Yes I am being serious, and don't call me Shirley.

Piper-Heidsieck NV Brut

From - Champagne, France
Grape - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 12%
Available from - Majestic
Price - £30

Appearance - clear; medium intensity; golden

Nose - Clean; medium intensity (maybe even a touch more); apple, lemon

Palate - Medium acid, medium alcohol, medium body, medium length; medium mousse; medium body. Lots of lemon, green fruit (apple), toasty-bready flavours from autolysis.

Quality - Good.  Drink now.

Balance - 9 Length - 7 Intensity - 6 Complexity - 6

This is a really nice wine.  I picked it up cheap (cheaper than shown above) as a bin-end but it is superior to some other NV Champagne that I have tried before.  It is very citrus and appley as one might expect, with the flavours expected from bottle fermentation making it very tasty.  I will post about autolysis separately.

Jojo said it made her think 'apple pie' - which is from the appley quality of the cooler climate Chardonnay, and the bready quality from the yeast.

It did not seem as acidic on the palate as I expected.

The 'balance' score, I assure you, was not contrived.  I contemplated scoring it 'medium+' for length, but I am confident that 'medium' is right.  Medium across the board on the palate makes it pretty balanced, but referring back to one of my early posts, balance isn't everything.

This is probably quite expensive at the full price for one bottle shown on Majestic's website, but I understand it is on fairly regular promotion.  A pleasant and very drinkable bottle of wine.