Reijosfood

Yearly Wine, food and good living fair was at Messukeskus last weekend. With 2 vouchers or tickets, which you purchase beforehand, you can taste different Champagnes (wine costs 1 ticket). Value of tickets is 2,5€. You also “rent” tasting glass which costs 2€ after giving glass back.

Most of the champagnes available are at Champagne bar/lounge, but some can be found at booths hosted by wine exporter’s. Could unfortunately not find any vintage champagnes.

Tasted Champagnes are in order of merit, not in the order they were tasted. On the top are the wines we liked most.

——————————————————-

Winner was Gosset Excellence Brut. Champagne is produced from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier grapes by champagne house Gosset. It was established in 1584 being one of the oldest wine makers. Champagne provides excellent balance between acidity, citrus and light minerals. (4+/5)

Second place goes to Mumm Cordon Rouge Brut which is produced from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes. Well balanced champagne suits for aperitif and with most of all food, except sweets. (4/5)

Third place goes to a little bit complicated champagne, Bonnaire Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut, which costs only 34,90€ at Alko’s. 3rd place is therefore partly earned because of price. Sparkling drink from Bonnaire champagne house does not include sugar at all (non dose). Blanc de blancs, only Chardonnay grapes, makes the taste of wine stable. Due to acidity and extra dry taste, makes you want to sip water between tasting. (4-/5)

Next comes Duval-Leroy Brut AB. Wine has obtained the Ecocert organic certification, meeting standards and specifications at an international level. First wine prdouced only from Pinot Noir grapes. Main reason to choose Duval-Leroy’s Cuvée Brut is to enjoy a wine produced from organic viticulture. Family business was founded 1859 and is nowaday’s led by Carol Duval-Leroy. (3,5/5)

Then comes Taittinger Nocturne Sec, champagne which should be enjoyed late in the evening, because of amount of sugar, 18 g/l. We tried it at about 4PM, which seemed to be much too early. Grapes used in production are Chardonnay (40%), Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunieur. Taste is close to semi-dry as sweetness is obvious. (3,5/5)

Difficult to say which one of the next two champagnes was “better”.

André Clouet Grande Réserve Blanc de Noirs Brut is produced only from Pinot Noir grapes. It does not help to raise ranking, that wine costs at Alko only 29,90€ being one of the cheapest champagnes there. Pure Pinot Noire champagne is challenging, not only when it comes to look, but also flavor. Family owned Clouet wineyard is quite small and it produces about 300.000 bottles per year (2/5)

 Champage De Saint Gall Rosé Brut is produced from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. The way rose was made is not so great, pinot noir wine was added afterwards to sparkling wine. You can almost notice that in the look. In taste you can find some strawberry and rasberry. and Wine is produced by co-operative Union Champagne. (2-/5)

To summarize, maybe it is better to focus to fewer champagnes from same producer. At least thought afterwards after long day and evening. But if there are not vintage champagnes available, what would be your choice?

Some interesting champagnes were already finished, which you can see for instance in the picture below. Name of the champagnes were crossed out. But at the end of the day, maybe that was also good thing….