Bollinger RD Champagne 1995 Limited France.....RD means recently disgorged, so it has been aged on its lees for longer (aminimum of 8 years). Not only does this impart richer yeastier flavours, but also maintains the Champagne's freshness. The result is unique style of fizz that makes it stand out from the crowd.Tasting Notes : Nuts, brioche and buttered bread feature with light lemon and melon fruit flavours.Method of Production : Handpicked fruit was pressed as whole bunches to yield clean juice. Vinification in oak casks resulted in warmer fermentation, producing complex flavours and high glycerol levels. After fermentation the wine was blended and underwent second fermentation in the bottle. The wine was disgorged before sale; this has spent most of the past deacde ageing on its lees thus creating delicate complexity.Food Choice : Try with lightly seared scallops with a gently spiced ginger dressing.Grape Mix : 69% Pinot Noir & 31% Chardonnay.Percentage Alcohol : 12%

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Lying at the heart of the Côte des Blancs on the lower slopes of the Grand Cru village of Avize can be found the lieux-dits of La Fosse, Némery and Champ Caïn. Jacquesson's three parcels on these south-east facing sites were planted to Chardonnay between 1962 and 1983.

Here, Campanian chalk, made up of calcite granules coming from the skeletons of marine microorganisms, rises almost to the surface, above which the very shallow topsoil is permeable and prone to frost. Additionally, the poor nature of the soil necessitates the occasional addition of nutrients, which, as always at Jacquesson, are organic.

The climatic conditions in 1996 were marked by a rapid succession of highly contrasting weather patterns. Severe winter frosts, reaching close to -20ƒC in February, were followed by a grey, cold month of March, record high temperatures and sunshine hours in April, frosts and hailstorms in May, giving way to excellent weather in early June to start the flowering which finished after a brutal cold snap that ran from the 19th onwards. The months of July and August witnessed repeated bouts of fine weather, thunderstorms and hot and humid weather, all propitious to the development of botrytis, mildew and other diseases. Fortunately a persistent wind came to rescue the meticulous efforts of our vineyard team by preventing this humidity from lingering, thereby allowing the grapes to grow under good conditions. The same north wind dried the grapes during the mid-September rains with the result that the sugar content of the berries increased in a spectacular manner. Picking took place on 25th September in sunshine. Such an atypical year could only produce atypical must: the balance between alcohol and acidity was without precedent, combining 11 degrees of potential alcohol with an acid reading of 10 gr/l.

Vinified partly in 40 and 75 hectolitre oak casks and partly in tanks, the assemblage of our three parcels was bottled on 2nd and 3rd June 1997 to become Avize Grand Cru 1996. Disgorged at regular intervals, this wine receives a minimal dosage of 3,5 gr/l and creates a perfect match of the minerality of the terroir of Avize with the exceptional ripeness of the 1996 harvest.

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Cuvée No. 730, being the 730th cuvée made by the House since our Centenary Cuvée in 1898, as reflected in our tirage records, was produced by assemblage based on the 2002 harvest and thus succeeds Cuvée No. 729 based on the 2001 harvest and Cuvée No. 728 based on the 2000 harvest.

The assemblage, 100% from Grands Crus and Premiers Crus, comes entirely from the villages where our vineyard holdings are located: Ay, Cumières, Dizy, Hautvillers and Mareuil-sur-Ay in the Grande Vallée de la Marne, as well as Avize, Chouilly and Oiry on the Côte des Blancs. Produced from pure cuvée, this assemblage contains 48% Chardonnay, 32% Pinot Noir and 20% Pinot Meunier.

2002 was a year of nearly ideal weather conditions for the vines: virtually no frost and no hail, a warm, sunny summer with suitably cool nights that was barely interrupted by some light showers at the beginning of September, all concluding with a harvest under sunny skies. Picking started on 12th September resulting in musts with an average of almost 11 degrees potential alcohol and an acidity level of slightly over 7 gr/l. (expressed as tartaric): a balance close to that achieved in the legendary 1976 vintage.

Both the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations proceeded faultlessly and over 50% of the wines were fermented in cask. We were able to retain all the lees by not racking the wines and this allowed us to carry out weekly bâtonnage for three months. As always we took advantage of the last cold spells of winter to clarify the wines naturally. Right from the start our tastings of the vins clairs illustrated their roundness, structure and ripeness. As a result we chose to complement these excellent wines, amounting to 60% of the assemblage, with 27% of reserve wines from the 2001 harvest for its finesse and floral character, 12% from the 2000 harvest for its structure and depth and 1% from the 1999 harvest for its lightly oxidative character.

Bottling, carried out without any prior filtration, took place during the springtime, producing 287,868 bottles, 5,488 magnums and 250 jeroboams. Cuvée No. 730, disgorged at regular intervals, will receive a dosage of 5 gr/l.

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Champagne Jacquesson Dizy Corne Bautray 2000 France ...High on the hill above the Premier Cru village of Dizy is the south-west facing lieu-dit of Corne Bautray, where Jacquesson owns a one hectare parcel of Chardonnay vines planted in 1962. Even if Campanian chalk forms the base of the sub-soil, as almost everywhere in Champagne, in this area it lies relatively far below the surface at a depth of some two metres. The topsoil, emanating from alluvial shifts, has a rather low chalk content and a silt-like clay texture that stands out because of its significant content of burrstone pebbles. This deep top layer provides an excellent source of water and minerals for the vines without constraining their ability to put down very deep roots, with the result that fertilizers are generally unnecessary.

In 1995 the weather conditions were initially quite tricky: springtime frosts were followed by a long period of warm, rainy weather that is so conducive to the development of both mildew and botrytis. A good summer was followed by the return of rain at the beginning of September. Thanks to the meticulous viticultural methods of the House, which focus on producing a moderate quantity of well-ventilated bunches, our grapes were able to ripen in optimal conditions without being attacked by botrytis. Picking took place on 26th September during the suitably cool but sunny weather that prevailed in the second half of that month. The grapes, in a state of perfect ripeness, produced a must measuring around 10 degrees of potential alcohol combined with a tartaric acid content of 8 gr/l.

The grapes harvested from this parcel were vinified in a single oak cask of 40 hectolitres. After the alcoholic and malolactic fermen¬tations the wine was promptly racked in order to retain the fine lees. There followed three months of weekly lees stirring. Thereafter we took advantage of the last colds of winter to clarify the wine naturally. During the tastings of vins clairs, Laurent Chiquet was so impressed by the weight, body and aromatic qualities of this wine that he decided to save a portion of this cask in order to bottle separately, with no filtration, 703 bottles of Dizy Premier Cru Corne Bautray 1995 on 28th May, 1996.

Disgorged on 7th November, 2002 with no dosage at all, this wine presents today a very unusual spectrum of flavours. On the nose ripe fruit and the nutty aroma redolent of fruit stones dominate, while on the palate it emerges as full-bodied and well-rounded with an extremely long and spice-filled finish. The result is a very individual wine where the complexity of this exceptional terroir in the Grande Vallée de la Marne takes precedence over the usual mineral characteristics of Chardonnay.

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Grand Vin Signature 1995 may best be perceived as an illustration of the way in which the terroirs of the three best viticultural areas in Champagne complement each other.

On the Côte des Blancs, the Chardonnay in the Grand Cru villages of Avize (30% of the assemblage) and Chouilly (15%) grow on gentle east-facing slopes where the chalk rises almost to the surface. On the Montagne de Reims, where sand and clay infiltrate the chalky subsoil, the gradual north-facing slopes allow the Pinot Noirs of Sillery to flourish (25%). In the Grande Vallée de la Marne a similar soil structure, enhanced by the steeper south-facing slopes, produces the intensity of the Pinot Noir from the Grand Cru Aÿ (30%). It was also from the Grande Vallée de la Marne, in the Premier Cru village of Dizy, that the Pinot Noir grapes were selected for the red wine destined to be used in the assemblage of Grand Vin Signature Rosé 1995.

In 1995 the weather conditions were initially quite tricky: springtime frosts were followed by a long period of warm, rainy weather that is so conducive to the development of both mildew and botrytis. A good summer was followed by the return of rain at the beginning of September.

Thanks to the traditionalistic viticultural methods of our House, which focus on producing a moderate quantity of well-ventilated bunches, our grapes were able to ripen in optimal conditions without being attacked by botrytis. Picking began on 21st September in Avize and Chouilly, on the 24th in Sillery and on the 26th in Dizy and Aÿ. As a result of the cool but sunny weather that prevailed in the second half of September, the musts distinguished themselves by their virtually flawless balance, ranging between 9.8 and 10.2 degrees of potential alcohol with an average acidity of 9 g/l (expressed as tartaric).

As is always the case for Grand Vin Signature, the musts were vinified and aged in oak casks. Sedimentation at cellar temperature preceded the transfer to cask, where both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation took place. The wines were then promptly racked in order to retain the fine lees and to allow three months of weekly lees stirring. Thereafter we took advantage of the last colds of winter to clarify the wines naturally, which then led on to the final tastings of vins clairs and the definitive choice of assemblage.

On 4th July 1996, after a light fining but no filtration at all, the bottling took place, producing 24,255 bottles and 948 magnums of Grand Vin Signature 1995.

As for the Pinot Noir from Dizy, it was destemmed and crushed before being fermented on the skins for six days. After an élevage of nine months in demi-muids, the resulting red wine was added to the assemblage, of which it represents 8%. A light filtration took place prior to the bottling of Grand Vin Signature Rosé 1995, which produced, also on 4th July 1996, 7,550 bottles and 250 magnums.

Disgorged at regular intervals, the wines receive a minimal dosage of 3.5gr/l.

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Jacquesson Brut Rosé NV: A blend of base wine with 8% Pinot noir. Good, pale, salmon-pink colour. Red fruits with a leafy greenness on the nose and through onto the palate. Short finish. Would benefit from a year or two to soften those hard edges though. Good. 15+/20

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Deutz Blanc de Blancs is only made when the base wine is of a very high standard. The growing season was wetter than normal early on, but was followed by an ideal long, dry autumn. This weather pattern heightened the citrus flavours in the Chardonnay used for Deutz Blanc de Blancs.The wine is a reflection not only of the vintage, but also the vineyard site. Grapes for Deutz Blanc de Blancs are always sourced on the southern side of Marlborough’s Wairau Valley, where the citrus-tinged fruit traditionally display great elegance and finesse.The predominant Chardonnay clone used for this wine is Mendoza, with its typical hen and chicken berries. This variation in berry size imparts greater concentration of flavour to the wine.The fruit was hand-picked early when the grapes had achieved good flavour development, but had not yet lost the crisp acidity required for premium méthode traditionnelle wines.

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The wine is light straw in colour. The approach is dominated by a taut and focused lemon flavour which extends through the palate to give great length. The Marlborough Chardonnay fruit, full malolactic fermentation and extended lees ageing combine to fill out the palate with toasty yeast flavours and an elegant creaminess.The wine displays on excellent palate structure, being both creamy and taut. The lingering aftertaste has a characteristic touch of berry fruit.

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Dom Perignon Œnotheque 1966 Gift Box...The term 'Oenotheque' refers to collection wines. The Dom Perignon Oenotheque is recently disgorged, which means the condition is excellent. They come in beautful wooden presentation cases and are the ultimate gift.

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