Grower Champagne Tasting
Le Petit Bijou
Thursday, Feb 9th 4-6pm
*Our original location- 103 North Side Square*
$39 Per Person (Wine Tasting Only)
Reservations Requested. Call 256-964-7980
Presented by special guest,
Allaina Lawrence
NV Charles Mignon Premium Reserve Brut, Champagne, France $44.99
With the modernity of its stainless steel thermoregulated, small capacity winery, the Charles Mignon House produces precise champagne wines. Enhancing their terroirs and three grape-varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir) through exceptional champagnes.
This soft, creamy Champagne has ripe apple and kiwi flavors and a subtle touch of minerality. It is dominated by Pinot Meunier, giving fruitiness and freshness at the end.
Balanced and aerial, Premium Reserve is a fresh and fruity champagne. Its aromas of white flowers and dried fruits are evocative of its blending of the three grapes varieties : Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay.
NV Stephane Coquillette Premier Cru Cart d'Or Brut, Champagne, France $60.99
Luminous, elegant, and celebratory, Stéphane Coquillette’s Carte d’Or Champagne has made the lists at MICHELIN-starred restaurants and is also a Wine Access staff favorite. From a true grower who farms organically and buys neither grapes nor fruit, it’s a gorgeously crafted bottle that every lover of bubbly should try.
Stéphane Coquillette had an enviable introduction to the craft of Champagne—the family business. He worked at his late father Christian’s side at the family firm of St. Chamant, an important producer in the Grand Cru village of Chouilly, and his grandmother, Hélène, was the first grower to domaine-bottle there.
At just 25 in 1979, he struck out on his own, creating his own Champagne house in the same village. Over the years, he acquired 10 parcels totaling 16 acres, and he is a true grower: He buys neither fruit nor wine and farms all of his grapes organically. His style is a little fresher and leaner than the more traditional St. Chamant that his father made legendary.
It’s a blend of Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards, consisting of 66% Pinot Noir from Aÿ and Mareuil/Aÿ and 33% Chardonnay from Chouilly and Cuis.
NV Charles Mignon Premium Reserve Brut Rose, Champagne, France $48.99
The beautiful salmon rose color is topped with a nice ring of fizziness making very fine bubbles. On the nose, the wine initially displays red fruits like cherry followed by plum and apricot. On the mouth, the freshness of the Chardonnay and the richness of the Pinot Noir enhance the wines full-bodied elegance, developing red fruits with cherry and blackcurrant, followed by apricot.
NV AR Lenoble Rose Terroirs "Mag 14", Champagne, France $56.99
The Cuvée Rosé Terroirs Mag 14 from AR Lenoble is made from 93% Chardonnay from Chouilly Grand Cru and 7% Pinot Noir from Bisseuil Premier Cru. This Rosé champagne combines the power of the red fruit aromas typical of the Bisseuil terroir and the elegance of the Chouilly terroir. The finish is airy, clean, precise thanks to a dosage reduced to the strict minimum.
This champagne, based on the 2014 harvest, offers us a superb balance between power, elegance and freshness that perfectly signs the style of the House AR Lenoble.
The charm, roundness and elegance of the Cuvée Rosé Terroirs allow all culinary audacities.
Superb as an aperitif, it will sublimate thin slices of raw ham, scallops with scampi, fresh goat cheese or strawberry soup.
NV Marie-Courtin Extra Brut Rose "Indulgence", Champagne, France $114.99
Dominique Moreau named her estate after her grandmother, Marie Courtin, whom she describes as a “woman of the earth”. With the 2005 vintage, Dominique set out to produce a series of single-vineyard, single-variety, single-vintage, zero-dosage Champagnes from biodynamically-grown grapes that are farmed and elaborated with meticulous care.
Spirituality plays an important role in her approach. Specifically, she uses pendulums to aid in evaluating the evolution of the grapes on the vine as well as the wine during élévage. She explains that the pendulum changes its natural rhythm and swing based on the energy emitted from a living being, whether person, vineyard, or wine.
Dominique's compelling Champagnes are electric and chiseled, with an intense brininess and minerality at their core.
50 year old Pinot Noir vines from .30 hectares. Soils: Sandy marl with veins of kimmeridgian
VITICULTURE: Farmed biodynamically and hand harvested VINIFICATION: 3-4 day maceration, fermentation in enamal lined steel tank AGING: Three years of ageing on the lees. Low SO2, no dosage
BIODYNAMIC. ORGANIC. LOW SULFITE. FEMALE WINEMAKER.
NV Vincent Couche Rose Desir, Champagne, France $59.99
This excellent grower champagne producer is from the Aube, the southern extension to the Champagne region, closer to Chablis than Reims. Here Pinot Noir predominates and it can achieve more ripeness than further north. Ripe, red Burgundy, Pinot Noir nose. The use of oak aging is clearly marked on the nose, adding a complexity and gloss to the fresh fruit. Really distinctive and successful - because of the wood character, far from typical rose champagne, but this is really quite compelling.-Nicholas Jackson