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Capturing the light of Champagne

Ruinart Chardonnay at Reims

Chardonnay is the very soul of Ruinart. The grape, mainly harvested from the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims terroirs, with its fresh aromas, vivacity, purity and luminosity, is the essence of all Champagne Ruinart cuvées.

From the beginning, the firm has owned 15ha of Chardonnay at Sillery and Puisieulx on the eastern side of the Montagne de Reims. It is the Montagne crus that produce wines richer and rounder than those of the Grand Cru Côte des Blancs, which have mineral focus and elegance but are often leaner.

Chardonnay Montagne de Reims Champagne

The delicate, fragile Chardonnay will only display the full breadth of its aromatic richness after a slow maturation in the coolness of the chalk cellars. This is up to 3 years for non-vintage wines, and 9 to 10 years for a Dom Ruinart. It is a test of the Cellar Master’s skill to produce a wine of brightness, intensity and elegance: combining these unique traits to develop what is known as the “Ruinart Taste”: an exclusive personality, truly in a class of its own.

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs is the signature of Ruinart. Made exclusively from chardonnay grapes, it is a beautifully luminous wine.

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs embodies purity of the Chardonnay grapes from which it is made exclusively. Made primarily with Premiers Crus from the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims terroirs, it is intensely aromatic.

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs

The nose is powerfully reminiscent of fresh fruits with dominant notes of citrus and exotic fruits, followed by a touch of jasmine, white peaches and pink peppercorns.

The palate is both precise and clean as the wine delivers aradiant balance between roundness and smoothness.

Pale, golden-yellow colour with subtle green glints and wonderful luminosity with a persistent stream of fine and delicate bubbles. A nose of fresh fruits dominated by citrus fruit and pineapple mixed with notes of white flowers and spices (ginger and cardamom). A superb Blanc de Blancs with a clean, pure and well-defined palate. The attack is supple and full-bodied giving way to a superb, refreshing finish of white peach and citron notes.

On the nose, Ruinart Blanc de Blancs offers fresh fruits dominated by citrus fruit and pineapple mixed with notes of white flowers and spices (ginger and cardamom). On the palate, a superb Blanc de Blancs is revealed with a clean, pure and well-defined palate. The attack is supple and full-bodied.

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs reveals a refreshing finish of white peach and citron notes.

Panaiotis’ aim in this young blend is “to capture the light of Champagne”, the elegance and freshness of chardonnay. The wine articulates its philosophy vividly, driven by pure lemon fruit and delicate citrus blossoms. In younger disgorgements, there’s a wonderful hint of struck flint, harking to the reductive nature of the house. A beautifully fresh and electric style of stunning persistence and linearity, giving voice to the full and gentle minerality of the premier crus of the Cote des Blancs. 95 Points

Tyson Stelzer, The Champagne Guide 2014-2015

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs - The Light of Champagne

A very sociable wine, excellent for aperitifs on a sunny terrace on a summer afternoon. It is a wonderful accompaniment for langoustine or tartar of sea bream served with olive oil and lemon. Grilled sole or a white fish sashimi would also marry the wine perfectly.

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10 Ways to Drink Champagne Like an Expert

Elise Losfelt of Moët & Chandon.

Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial

1. The glass

The best way to enjoy champagne is in a white wine glass. A white wine glass’s larger bowl enables the wine to open up in the glass, allowing you to better enjoy all the aromas and to savor the complexity of the champagne. Traditional champagne flutes are perfect for showcasing champagne’s stream of bubbles, but their narrow shape limits the drinker’s experience of aromas and flavors. Coupe glasses, on the other hand, create the opposite experience; the glass’s extra-wide mouth amply exposes the champagne to the air allowing the bubbles and aromas to escape quickly.

2. Best way to open

When opening your bottle of Moët & Chandon, make sure you keep the cage on! The cage helps you control the cork so it doesn’t fly out when it pops, and also gives you leverage to help separate the cork from the bottle. When removing the cork, hold the top of the cage with your thumb to keep the cork in place and untwist the wire six times. Then hold the cage and cork together in one hand while using the other to twist the bottle’s base in a circular direction away from the cork to slowly work the cork out. Twisting the bottle instead of the cork allows you to more gently remove the cork and have more control.

3. Where to store

A common misconception when storing champagne is to leave it in the fridge. If you’re planning to enjoy your bottle of champagne immediately (within 3 or 4 days after buying it) storing it in the refrigerator is fine. But if it sits there for weeks the cork can dry out as there is no humidity in refrigerators. As corks dry out, the seal between the bottle and the cork loosen up and the champagne will oxidize faster, changing its aromas. Instead, keep it in a cool place in your home, away from any light, and where the temperature is consistent.

4. The ideal temperature

Once you’re ready to enjoy your champagne, the best way to chill your bottle is to fill an ice bucket with ice and one-third water and allow your bottle to cool for 15-20 minutes. Moët & Chandon should be served around 50⁰ F.

5. Pouring

When pouring champagne, only fill your glass about one-third of the way full. If you over-pour, it will warm up too quickly!

6. Hold the stem!

Also, remember to hold your glass by the stem and not by the bowl because your hands will warm the champagne up too quickly. And, holding the glass by the stem will make you look oh so elegant!

7. The stopper

In between pours, don’t forget to use a good champagne stopper to preserve all the delicious bubbles! A stopper will keep your open bottle fresh for about 1 day, in case you don’t finish in one sitting.

8. Drink champagne with your dinner!

Enjoy champagne throughout an entire meal! Many people think they should only enjoy Champagne as an aperitif but that it is not the only way to drink it. Champagne pairs beautifully with foods like fish, meat, grilled vegetables, and risotto, and can bring out new flavors you’ve never tasted in these foods!

9. Best foods to pair with bubbly

Also, don’t be afraid to experiment with food pairings. Oysters and caviar are fantastic with champagne, and more casual foods like truffle fries, fried chicken and cheese are equally delicious with Champagne! Champagne loves oily, salty and fatty foods as they bring out the wine’s fruitiness and freshness, so foods like burgers, tacos, BBQ sauce, and lobster are exciting new pairings to try that champagne connoisseurs have been enjoying for years!

10. Celebrate every day

If you have a bottle of champagne in your refrigerator, don’t wait for a special occasion to enjoy it. You will see that by opening that bottle, the special occasion will come to you. Celebrate life every day!

The original post appeared on Town & Country.

All photos courtesy of Moët & Chandon

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Krug Grande Cuvée Food Pairing

Krug Grande Cuvee and Truffle

The ultimate pleasure experience in Champagne. The first prestige cuvee to be re-created every year, beyond the very notion of vintage.

Krug Grande Cuvée is the quintessence of Krug’s crafted excellence: an extraordinary blend of some 120 wines from ten different vintages, some of which may reach 15 years of age. Blending so many vintages gives Krug Grande Cuvée its unique fullness of flavours and aromas, an extraordinary generosity with exceptional finesse, the result of a stay of at least another six years in the cellars.

Every glass of Krug Grande Cuvée is the fruit of many years of craft and patience. The art of blending many years gives Krug Grande Cuvée its unique plethora of flavours and aromas, incredible generosity and an absolute elegance that would be impossible to express with the wines of a single year.

Every year, we recreate from scratch the multitude of facets that form perfect harmony on the palate, no flavour dominating or competing with another; this is the main characteristic of Krug Grande Cuvée. Its myriad aromas make Krug Grande Cuvée the richest of them all. Its true generosity means that everyone can find something in it that stirs their emotions.

Eric Lebel, Chef de Caves, Krug

Food and Wine Pairing Inspirations

Krug Grande Cuvée lends itself to a plethora of culinary combinations, from the simplest to the most sophisticated, from an extra mature parmesan to a dish of “turbot à la truffe”.

Krug Grande Cuvee and Truffle

Over twenty years go into creating each bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée, to pair it with black truffle is to create a union of the best of nature’s offering. Simply the smell of fresh, delicate truffle is enough to evoke the fresh scents of autumn fruit in Krug Grande Cuvée; they combine in anyway no matter how simple, the experience is unforgettable.

Krug Grande Cuvee and Chestnuts

As the nights draw in, the evocative warmth of toasted chestnuts is irresistible. Smokey, crunchy and yet soft, chestnuts enhance the wines which compose Krug Grande Cuvée which can reach up to 15 years of age. A simple association, together they achieve sublime refined elegance.

Krug Grande Cuvée Tasting Notes

Deep golden colour and fine, vivacious bubbles, predicting fullness and elegance. Aromas of flowers in bloom, ripe & dried fruit, marzipan, gingerbread and citrus fruits. Flavours of hazelnut, nougat, barley sugar, jellied and citrus fruits, almonds, brioche and honey.

The richness of your Krug Champagne is fully revealed between 9°C and 12°C (49°F – 54°F). Serving your bottle too cold would refrain the aromas’expression.

Your Champagne should be stored in a wine cellar, or in a cool (between 10 to 15 °C – 50 to 59 °F) dry and away from light place, the exact conditions of Krug cellars.

Buy Krug Grande Cuvée

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What is Champagne?

Aprapart & Fils Mineral

Champagne wines are exclusively produced from grapes grown, harvested and made into wine within the Champagne delimited region, in France. The grapes used to make Champagne wines possess characteristics not found anywhere else in the world due to the particular geography, soil and climate of the Champagne delimited region.

Champagne wines are produced by natural yeast fermentation in the bottle, in accordance with strict criteria laid down in the Champagne regulatory framework covering every aspect of winemaking.

Principal rules:

Just three authorized grape varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier

Short pruned vines (Cordon de Royat, Chablis and Guyot pruning)

Capped grape yields per hectare

Juice extraction strictly limited to 102 litres of must per 160 kilos of grapes

Minimum annual required alcohol levels by volume

Dedicated Champagne wine-making and storage premises

A natural winemaking process known as the ‘Méthode Champenoise’

A minimum 15 months storage period for bottled wines prior to shipping

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Terroir

Agrapart & Fils Domaine

The Champagne region has a history of vine growing that dates back to the dawn of Christianity and its vineyards have been delimited by controlled appellation of origin rules since 1927. But despite its world-famous wines, the terroir at he heart of this region remains little known.

With its northern location, rugged climate, distinctive soil type and hillside vineyards, the Champagne terroir is the only one of its kind – as original as the wine it produce.

Over the centuries, the people of Champagne have mastered their environment, bringing out its unique and richly varied profile. Major research today builds on that process, further extending our knowledge of the terroir.

Here – for lovers of Champagne everywhere – the natural heritage is revealed in all its rich and fascinating detail.