Grower Champagne Dinner at Domaine Hudson

As often as I extol the virtues of sparkling wine’s place at the table, it’s far from often that I have the opportunity to sit down to a five course dinner paired exclusively with Champagne. That’s just what I did last night, though, courtesy of an invite from Tom Hudson, owner of Wilmington, Delaware’s Domaine Hudson (and a semi-frequent commenter on this blog).

The evening's lineup.
In addition to overseeing the day-to-day activities at Wilmington’s only wine bar, Tom coordinates an occasional series of focused tasting and wine dinner events. This latest shindig paired the food of executive chefs Jason Barrowcliff and Mark Doto with selections from the Champagne portfolio of Terry Theise. Unable to attend himself, Mr. Theise, I’m told, personally selected the Champagnes on offer after contemplating the menu the chefs had designed for the affair. In the absence of Terry or one of his usual representatives, Tom invited Linda Collier, proprietor of Collier’s Wines in Centreville, Delaware, to provide color commentary for the evening’s proceedings. The real stars of the show, though, were the Champagnes that not only spoke for themselves but also spoke, more often than not, in harmony with the food on offer.

Green Eggs and Ham – warm poached egg, herb emulsion, spinach, crispy pancetta and warm shallot compote on brioche
with
Champagne Brut “Tradition,” Gaston Chiquet NV (Dizy)
The first duo set a tough standard, one of those pairings where everything harmonized really well. The initially reductive characteristics of the Champagne clicked, right off the bat, with the salty, smoky flavors of the pancetta crisp. As the wine warmed, its Meunier dominated flavors became more apparent, showing touches of nut bread, pear and red flowers, all of which flavors were heightened by the richness of the egg protein and sweetness of the caramelized shallots on the plate.

Prosciutto and Arugula with toasted walnuts, fig, shaved parmiggiano and orange-vanilla vinaigrette
with
Champagne Grand Cru Sec “Cuvée Tendresse,” Jean Milan NV (Oger)
I’m still not a big fan of Milan’s “Tendresse.” I just can’t get my arms around its highly perfumed, slightly confected being. On this night, it was tasting, straight up, like the “liqueur” from a jar of maraschino cherries and that, my friend, wasn’t helping me come to terms with it. All of that said, this was one of those pairings where food helped the wine to make more sense. The Champagne worked with what was essentially a salad course in much the same way as can a Riesling Kabinett from the Mosel or Saar, its combination of delicate sweetness and high acidity playing nice-nice with the notoriously difficult combination of greens and vinegar. The sweetness of Prosciutto certainly didn’t hurt, even if the dish would have been even better minus the insidious influence of a few drops of truffle oil.

Pan Seared Day Boat Scallop with exotic mushroom-goat cheese strudel and herbed truffle-carrot broth
with
Champagne Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs “Fleuron” Brut, Pierre Gimonnet et Fils 2002 (Cuis)
Truffle oil again… but this time it worked, courtesy of the vinosity and well developed mineral flavors of Gimonnet’s vintage “Fleuron.” At once rich and delicate, the wine showed elements of sandalwood and white chocolate, marrying naturally with the sweetness of the scallops, carrots and mushrooms. As with the Chiquet, “Fleuron” really developed with air, its grippy texture and phenolic concentration becoming more apparent via its upward shift in temperature. Lilacs and baking spices emerged on the nose and the wine displayed excellent length. This time, the Champagne may just have stolen the show, even though this was my favorite dish of the night.

Roasted Barrel Cut Rib Eye with sage-pepper coulis and parmiggiano polenta
with
Champagne Premier Cru “Sélection” Brut, Marc Hébrart NV (Mareuil-sur-Ay)
Tom admitted to being skeptical as to whether Champagne could hold up to a beef course, a doubt I’m sure he wasn’t alone in holding. I wasn’t among the doubters, though, as I’ve had many a black fruit driven Champagne with more than enough structure to stand up to red meat. As it turned out, Hébrart’s “Sélection” was indeed up to the task. Even if nothing was added via its combination with the steak, it held its own, tasting pretty darn decadent along the way. It was actually the streak of tomato coulis painted down the middle of the plate that threw the wine for a loop, with a zesty tang that was too assertive for the wine to match.

Warm Berry Crisp with vanilla ice cream
with
Champagne Premier Cru “Le Demi-Sec,” A. Margaine NV (Villers-Marmery)
Well, four out of five ain’t bad. I don’t think even a fully doux Champagne could have withstood the berry crisp’s triumvirate of acidic fruit, high sweetness and tongue numbing, mouth coating frozen dairy product. Margaine’s demi-sec was blasted out of the water. The dessert was actually quite tasty, just not the pairing. Even after finishing the crisp it was tough to discern any detail in the wine. Theise had apparently warned Tom that this might be the case.... I’m generally a proponent of wine following food but here’s a case where it might have been best to tailor a dessert specifically for the wine. Milk chocolate beignets, perhaps? Or a lightly sweet apple tart?

No harm done, though. Just as we can sometimes learn more about someone based on what they don’t like versus what they do enjoy, the occasional awkward pairing is an integral element in learning the ins and outs of the greater food and wine experience.

Gimonnet's 2002 "Fleuron" was the wine of the night.

Domaine Hudson
1314 N. Washington Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
(302) 655-WINE

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Highlights from the Terry Theise Champagne Tasting

The horror.

When Kevin Pike of Michael Skurnik Wines told me the date that had been selected for the Terry Theise Champagne portfolio tasting, that was essentially the first thing that crossed my mind. The horror. It was the same date that had already been announced for the Louis/Dressner tasting. Not just the same date; it was also at exactly the same time. The only saving grace was an invite from Kevin to Theise’s VIP Champagne session, which started one hour earlier than the main Theise and Dressner events. Thanks, Kevin! I figured that one extra hour might just buy enough time to make it to both.

In retrospect, the sensible thing would have been to forego one in favor of the other. Which one, though? In the moment, there was no way I was going to miss either. In the end, that meant each received slightly short shrift in terms of the amount (and focus) of attention I was able to provide. But I’m not sorry. It was a blast, even if I was worn out by the end of the day. And I tasted some great (and not so great) wines at both events.

The biggest issue at the Theise event was time management, which by nature included figuring out what to taste and what to skip. In a room full of grower Champagnes, not to mention a couple of tables of other sparkling wines and even some Burgundy, that was tough work. Here are some highlights, in slightly random order.

A great start – Pierre Gimmonet et Fils:

Overall, the order of producer placement in the room was very well done. The extremely delicate, finessed wines of Pierre Gimmonet et Fils made for a great starting point. Didier Gimmonet was on hand pouring his collection of Blanc de Blancs from the Côtes des Blancs. From a very fine, floral Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs to the creamy, marzipan-laced “Cuvée Gastronome” done in low-pressure Crémant style, and on to the 2002 “Fleuron” that showed notes of fino sherry on a sweet-fruited front end, the entire range was very appealing, showcasing a broad spectrum of what’s possible on the Côtes des Blancs. The real stand-out was their 2000 “Spécial Club” bottling from a selection of old vines in Cramant – dense and loaded with aromas of brioche. The 1999 version, poured from magnum, was higher-toned but suffered in comparison due to its sulfurous nose.

The showstopper – René Geoffroy:

The affable Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy was stationed at Table 6, just shy of mid-point in the room. His collection was the most hedonistic and perhaps the most memorable of the event. And it had the breed and substance to back up the show. None of Geoffroy’s wines undergo malolactic fermentation, thus retaining the requisite spine of acidity for barrel fermentation, which is applied at least in part to most if not all of the wines made at the estate. Their “Expression” Brut NV was the most complete basic cuvée I tasted that day. The “Rosé de Saignée,” 100% Pinot Noir macerated on the skins for about eight hours, showed even better than when I last tasted it – bright and fruity. Jean-Baptiste explained that he wants it to be recognizable even when tasted blind. “Cuvée Volupté,” a Blanc de Blancs purely from the 2004 vintage though not vintage dated, was dense and muscular yet cut across the palate with tensile, laser beam focus. The 2000 “Millésime” Brut, a blend of 30% Pinot Noir and 70% Chardonnay, had a huge nose of spiced apple cake, crème brulée and concentrated minerality. The top bottling, “Cuvée de René Geoffroy,” was just decadent, with a nose of cocoa and chalk followed by rich, creamy textures.

Bring the funk – Aubry:

Aubry is an estate with a long history. Their approach always keeps an eye toward the old school but they’re not afraid to push the envelope. They’ve become best known for championing all but forgotten rarities, once indigenous to Champagne, like Arbanne, Petit Meslier, Pinot Gris (sometimes called Fromenteau) and Pinot Blanc. Their classic wines tend toward broad, rich textures, as evidenced by the basic Brut NV and their 2002 “Aubry de Humbert.” I found “Ivoire et Ebène,” a cuvée of 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir aged for nine months in small barrels, to be more curious than compelling, completely dominated by wood. It’s in their “Nombre d’Or” series that the funk comes out to play. “La Nombre d’Or Sablé Blanc des Blancs” in particular smells and tastes akin to a Belgian Lambic ale – wild, sour and full of mineral funk – while “La Nombre d’Or Campanae Veteres Vites” is earthy and stony. Both include Petit Meslier and Arbanne while the “Veteres Vites” also includes Pinot Gris along with all three classic Champagne varieties.

Other houses that showed well:

I was very pleased with the Blanc des Blancs of Varnier-Fannière, all very feminine and cleanly fruit-driven in style. At the same table, the Champagnes of Marc Hébrart also showed well, particularly the “Sélection” Brut NV that displayed cascading layers of fallen leaves and baking spices on its finish.

The Gaston Chiquet table was situated just after Geoffroy in the lineup. Nicolas Chiquet’s wines may have been overshadowed a bit by his neighbor’s but they weren’t far off in their overall consistency and impact. I really liked their “Blanc de Blancs d’Aÿ” NV with its precise nose, linear texture and lovely nose of apples and white flowers. Even though Nicolas was clearly very proud of the 1999 vintage version of the same wine, being poured from magnum, I found it to be in an odd spot, very tight and slightly musty. Very subtly corked, perhaps. His “Cuvée de Réserve” more than made up for it though, with a wonderful nose of potpourri followed by hazelnut torte on the palate and an extremely sapid, gripping texture.

Tasting through the offerings from Jean Lallement et Fils, I was reminded how delicious and complete they are. Their “Réserve” Brut, built on the same blend as their base Brut cuvée but based on a single vintage in most years, is intensely red fruited and sappy. And their rosé, an assemblage of 100% Pinot Noir with 9% still red wine, was truly lovely.

The offerings from Chartogne-Taillet, too, were solid across the board, particularly their generous, creamy Blanc de Blancs Brut and their “Cuvée Fiacre” 2002, which exuded the natural warmth and sensuality of a beautiful woman just waking up after a good night’s sleep.

A few that didn’t impress:

As pleasurable as it was to taste and chat with the lovely Caroline Milan, the wines of her Côtes de Blancs based house, Jean Milan, left me flat. Too many of the wines seemed driven more by commercial positioning than by natural expression.

Moving on to Verzenay, the wines of Pehu-Simonet came across as coarse and rather two-dimensional, especially in comparison to those of their neighbors at Jean Lallement.

And as much as I liked Vilmart & Cie’s 2001 “Grand Cellier d’Or” when last I tasted it, I just couldn’t get my arms around their wines on this day. They came across as confectionery in nature, a sweetness I was assured originated from phenolic ripeness but which my gut told me was just as much the result of high levels of dosage. Certainly well crafted wines, particularly the Burgundian, concentrated 1997 “Coeur de Cuvée,” but in an overall style that had me scratching my head.

A few that got lost in the shuffle:

I was left with generally good impressions of the wines of Henri Goutorbe and A. Margaine but their wines were just a little too subtle to make themselves known in the context of such a grand tasting. Both are at least worthy of further investigation.

Worst of all, a few that I missed entirely:

With all due apologies and regrets, I never managed to visit a few of the tables. I passed by Rudolphe Peters of Pierre Peters, as I’ve tasted their wines often enough that I wanted to focus on lesser known entries. Likewise, I missed Laetitia Billiot at the Henri Billiot table, as the crowd was just too deep on first pass and, much to my chagrin, I never made it back around. And as for Paul Laurent and Egly-Ouriet, all I can say is that the clock was ticking and the Dressner tasting was calling. Details on that should be forthcoming in the near future.

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