Production Of Some Luxury Champagnes

I once read that luxury Champagne often is priced as is perfume - what the market will bear. Extensive advertising often plays a role. Good reviews by critics always helps. However some luxury Champagnes are quite limited in production because the source may be a very small vineyard. Decanter recently gave some production figures for luxury Champagnes made in only very small quantities.

(1) Bollinger, Blanc de Noirs, Vieilles Vignes Francaises. The latest release is the 1999, and there were only 3000 bottles. This wine is extremely expensive and difficult to find. I have only seen it offered at auction and at inflated prices at a few carriage trade wine dealers who likely bought at auction. The Pinot Noir grapes from which the wine is made are planted on their own roots and have never had to be grafted over to American roots. Why a tiny plot of such vines escaped disease, that required replanting in most of France, is not known, at least to me. According to some critics who have tasted many vintages of this wine, it often can improve greatly with considerable age, and it is very much a food wine, especially when well aged.

(2) Billecart-Salmon, Le Clos Saint-Hiliare. The 1996 production was only 4000 bottles

(3) Philipponnat, Clos des Goisses. There were only 5000 bottles of the 1997.

(4) Krug, Clos du Mesnil. There were 12624 bottles and 260 magnums of the 1995.

(5) Roederer Cristal Rose. Production was 20000 bottles of the 1999.

The first 3 Champagnes on the list above are even more rare than the

1990 Romanee-Conti, for which the label gives a production of 7446 labeled bottles. Of course rarity is not the only factor at work here, because the 1990 Romanee-Conti sells far far more than any of the Champagnes listed above.
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The Bollinger Blanc de Noirs Vieilles Vignes Francaises escaped phylloxera is because this particular vineyard (or perhaps it's two vineyards... I don't remember-- it's been a decade since I've visited Bollinger) is that it's surrounded by a thick stone wall and the phylloxera louse just didn't find its way in.

I've heard that while it might be nice to taste this particular wine it's not so wonderful as to merit the price that this rare wine brings. Of course I've not had it, so I can't opine first-hand. But there's not necessarily anything distinctive just because the wine is from ungrafted rootstock.

There's a Champagne (I don't remember the name) that's made NOT from pinot noir, pinot meunier nor chardonnay, but from some ancient grapes that are also allowed in Champagne but nobody else uses anymore. I was thrilled to try it. And the result? I didn't notice any difference. If you'd told me it was made from any combination of the usual three grapes I'd have said "Of course." I tasted it twice and it tasted like Champagne to me. Not that all Champagnes taste alike, of course-- I've had hundreds in the last fifteen years. But nothing about it said that anything was out of the ordinary.

Shaun Eli

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Shaun Eli

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