France

Champagne Dumenil Cuvee Prestige Vieilles Vignes Review

Whenever it comes to fine Champagne, you generally have many categories of bottles to choose from. These can include non-vintage, vintage, and more exclusive blends that feature the best of the best the producer has to offer.

Prestige-branded Champagne often is the top of the top for any given producer, and we knew we were in for a treat when we opened Champagne Dumenil's Cuvee Prestige Vieilles Vignes Brut.

But it wasn't until we sampled this astoundingly delicious bottle that we truly understood how special it was. This one is quite the gem!

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Celene Amethyste Brut Blanc de Noirs NV Review – A Great Price

In my studies for WSET Diploma, I knew I had to get my hands of a Blanc de Noirs style of wine to try.

This style of sparkling is white wine made from black grapes (hence the term “white of black”) and, in my shopping experience at least, is slightly harder to come by over the more popular (and highly prized) Blanc de Blanc style.

So not only was it a treat finding Celene's Amethyste Brut, it was also a treat to try a Cremant from Bordeaux made from Cabernet Franc and Merlot. But the real kicker was that this bottle was also on sale for about $12, which made it an absolute steal!

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Chateau Picque Caillou Pessac-Leognan 2020 Review – Acidic French White

I have a love/hate relationship with Sauvignon Blanc (and blends) from France. On average I really enjoy the grape, but to get the intensity and complexity I generally prefer out of French wines it almost always feels like you have to start out at $40/bottle (if not more) to get to a quality point that other locales can provide for half the price.

This is not exclusive to Sauvignon Blanc. In all honesty, it is simply France knowing how to get the most for their wines abroad. But that being said, it seems especially true with all the Sauvignon Blancs we've tried.

The Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon blend from Chateau Picque Caillou from Pessac-Leognan was not much different. While this one was much more complex for its price point than we originally expected, we also weren't quite sure about the sell price in the USA.

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Jean-Baptiste Adam Brute Rose NV – Traditional Method Rose

When I decided to sign up for WSET Diploma, I knew I'd have to go sparkling heavy when in the D4 module.

As I have the least experience with all things bubbles, this meant finding new styles of wines to try outright (although not necessarily new grapes per our quest).

So early on in this module, I decided to go for Jean-Baptiste Adam Brute Rose- a Cremant d'Alsace made in the traditional method with a little bit of skin contact from my favorite region in France!

It was every bit what I hoped for.

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Taittinger Champagne Brut NV Review – Impressive Flavor Profile

We often find that non-vintage Champagne can have flavor profiles all over the place. Some are high acid with simple citrus fruit flavors. Others have strong lees components. Others still may have some indication of age because, well, we simply have no way of knowing how old that bottle was to begin with.

Champagne Taittinger's Brut NV definitely fell towards the end of being one of the more complex non-vintage Champagnes we've had to date, and now we simply want more!

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Serge Dagueneau et Filles Pouilly-Fume Les Pentes 2019 Review

When it comes to French Sauvignon Blanc, if you know a bit about regions your mind may first go to Sancerre in the Loire Valley. While this region does make stellar bottles, we often find the prices in the USA to be just a bit more than what we'd prefer for the respective bottles.

Thankfully, Pouilly-Fume nearby also makes some stellar Sauvignon Blanc at, in our limited sampling at least, slightly better quality when comparing two similarly priced bottles. The only downside? They can be quite hard to find in the USA- so whenever we see a bottle we snatch it up right away. Domaine Serge Dagueneau et Filles Pouilly-Fume was no different, and we really could use another bottle of this one in our cellar!

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Domaine des Quatre Routes Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie 2020 Review

Whenever we have oysters, our thoughts go to Muscadet Sevret et Maine sur lie as the pairing.

There is something about this particular grape that works so well with oysters as the lees aging offers a richness to what would otherwise be a simple wine. Beyond that, we historically have noted a decent salinity in this style of wine that offsets the brininess of oysters quite nicely.

So naturally, when we had oysters delivered to our house, it was time to open a Domaine des Quatre Routes Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie!

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Olivier Morin Bourgogne Aligote 2017 Review – A Nice Complexity

When you think of white wines for Burgundy, your mind probably goes to Chardonnay. But there are other white grapes from this famous region in France, with one particular one, Aligote, we've only recently been able to try.

Olivier Morin's Aligote could have been a simple-but-acidic white wine, but this one had a nice complexity to it thanks to a year of lees aging.

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E. Guigal Condrieu 2019 Review – Low Acid and Strong Flavors

As I am slowly falling in love with the Northern Rhone for its Syrah, I've always been curious about trying the region's notable white grape- Viognier.

If Cote-Rotie is the champion of all things Syrah, then Condrieu nearby is all about this floral and fragrant grape. But there was always one problem- it is really hard to find a reasonable bottle of Condrieu. $80-$100+ is the norm with these, and it wasn't until I stumbled upon a $60 bottle of E. Guigal Condrieu at a Total Wine in Virginia that I finally threw reason out the door and snatched one up.

While this one was a bit out of the conventional balance we like, we have to admit, the flavor was a winner.

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Domaine Rostaing Ampodium Cote Rotie 2017 Review

Over the last year or so, I've been developing a bit of a love affair with Syrah. This grape has a wonderful flavor profile with nice black pepper characteristics and can be quite intense as well.

Of all the regions that produce Syrah, my affinity is pushing towards those from the Northern Rhone in regions like Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage, and others. One region that took me a while to try was Cote Rotie as these bottles are often among the most expensive we've seen (think $70 for the cheapest, $100 for average, and $150+ for more).

But the allure of Syrahs from the roasted hillside got the better of me, so when I needed a bottle to celebrate some good news, I knew what to get. I ended up finding Domaine Rostaing Ampodium 2017 for just about $90 and popped it open the very next day. It was everything I hoped for.

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