The Final Champagne Tasting
Note: Forgive any rambling in this post; I am recovering from a cold so heaven only knows how coherent this post is.
It may seem as if Melissa and I have done our fair share of Champagne tastings recently. The Terry Theise event in January, the K & L tasting a few weeks ago. How many of these do we need? Just one more, it turns out, one we hosted ourselves in our little apartment.
We had arranged to try some estate-bottled Champagnes (real Champagnes, not sparkling wine). Most Champagnes are purchased from a zillion little growers, the art in the bottle being a result of the blender's discerning palate. An estate-bottled Champagne means that all the grapes were harvested from the bottler's own property. In a sense, these are artisanal Champagnes, and we thought that having some at our wedding would continue our trend of having local, artisanal products for our guests to eat.
But we did not venture into this on our own: we invited an eclectic group comprising Melissa's mother and grandmother, my mother and her husband, and our dear friends Lisa and Josh, who are very knowledgeable about wines.
In terms of preparation, we were, as French chefs say, dans le merde. Everything seemed to be taking too long, and we ended up scrapping a number of the planned dishes due to lack of time. I didn't have all the ingredients I needed, and worked very hard for a modest quantity of food. But, everyone had a good time, and if people didn't stuff themselves, nor did they go hungry.
The best part about doing a Champagne tasting, of course, is that you only have to put minimal effort into pairing food with the wine; Champagne is among the most affable of wines in this regard. So you can make pretty much whatever you please.
Which is not to say that there aren't classic pairings, food that begs to be paired with this most revered of wines. Who are we to deny such greatness? And so we served oysters. A few dozen raw Kumamoto oysters, glistening in their shells, handled ever so delicately by their server so that the briny liquid inside would not spill out. And I followed a suggestion from Rick Tramonto's Amuse-bouche and served them with a blood orange aspic. A very nice touch, incidentally. The aspic was ruby red, and contributed a pleasant tang to the oyster.
Of course, raw oysters are hard for some to eat, so we had alternate food as well. House-cured gravlax, which had been curing in our refrigerator for the week. A pile of gougeres, little balls of pate a choux mixed with an aged Gruyere. A Brie de Meaux and Selles-sur-Cher, two of the world's most wonderful cheeses. Chocolate covered hazelnuts, rolled by hand by me that morning. And a Roquefort-Pear Trifle, straight from the pages of the French Laundry Cookbook. I'm not sure our guests knew what to make of this; it looked like it would be a dessert, but of course ended up being something else altogether. I thought it was delicious.
Ah, yes. The Champagnes. We served seven different bottles, and let our guests choose as they would. The majority of people voted for the René Geoffroy a Cumreres, Premier Cru. Though some preferred his Cuvee 97, that was too bad, as it is out of our price range for the wedding (we bought half a case for ourselves, however). Curiously, my merchant tells me that this maker favors Pinot Meunier, which he considers underappreciated and underutilized in Champagne production (Champagnes are usually blends of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier).
The wine that fared the worst in my mind was the Nicholas Feuillate Premier Cru Chauilly-Epernay, the $20 bottle we bought at the K & L tasting we went to, and the one non-estate-bottled Champagne in the mix. It was among the best of its price range at that tasting, but tasted harsh next to the more delicate $30 bottles. Too bad, as we're going to need two cases of the stuff.
The most striking thing about the tasting notes we collected from our guests was their diversity. While many preferred the non-vintage Geoffroy, one of our wine tasters preferred the Feuillate (though he gave the Geoffroy '97 the highest marks). Descriptions ranged across the board, and the scores people assigned varied widely. As everyone pointed out, however, we're not going to go wrong with any of them. Any Champagne at all is going to be appreciated by our guests, and it's arguable that anyone will appreciate the difference between this Champagne and any other. But our wedding is going to be full of foodstuffs which people won't notice. The important thing to us is to support the local artisanal foods we care so deeply about.
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