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750ml
Bottle:
$109.94
$114.80
Features flavors of creme de cassis, lemon curd, poached apricot and smoked almond framed by well-cut, crunchy...
750ml
Bottle:
$174.05
$183.60
Discreet and nuanced nose, showing lemon-curd, brioche and pie-crust notes. A hint of savory umami, too. Beautiful...
750ml
Bottle:
$249.94
A driven and serious DP with aromas of chalk, biscuits, apricot stones and lemons. Some spice and dried flowers, too....
750ml
Bottle:
$91.94
6 bottles:
$90.10
The Carneros Cuvée is our Tête de Cuvée. It represents the best fruit from our 335 acre estate as well as our...
750ml
Bottle:
$99.93
12 bottles:
$97.93
A toasty Champagne, with generous lime blossom, ground coffee, vanilla and oak spice aromatics, this is firm and...
750ml - Case of 3
Bottle:
$261.23
A 100% Brut-Zero Chardonnay, disgorged in April 2023. This has a gorgeous nutty nose with brioche and toasted almond...
750ml
Bottle:
$93.73
$100.79
#83 TOP 100 CELLAR SELECTIONS 2021. The effects of a cool year on this new vintage release is impressive in its...
750ml
Bottle:
$110.69
$122.99
Blend of 44% Pinot Noir (14% red wine), 35% Chardonnay, 21% Meunier – 2013 was a difficult season, but after a...
750ml
Bottle:
$84.00
12 bottles:
$79.80
750ml
Bottle:
$49.94
6 bottles:
$48.94
Ripe peach on the nose, then nectarine and red fruits balanced by energy and acidity. It's pretty sophisticated,...
750ml
Bottle:
$210.87
$234.30
Subtle aromas of cooked apples and minerals with chalk and salt. Brioche, too. Full-bodied with a beautiful center...
750ml
Bottle:
$418.00
$464.45
This rich rose Champagne is aromatic and minerally on the nose, with smoke and oyster shell notes that transition to...
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$160.95
Disgorged in May 2019 with three grams per liter dosage after tirage under natural cork, the 2013 Extra-Brut Blanc de...
Pre-Arrival
Bollinger Champagne B13 2013
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$124.91
For an 8-year-old champagne this is extremely vibrant, the red-fruit character from the pinot noir grape rather in...
750ml - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$1492.99
$1588.29
Champagne Blend Chenin Blanc Melon de Bourgogne 2013 750ml
The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn't unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as 'blanc de blanc', meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or 'blanc de noir', which is made solely with Pinot Noir.
Originating in France yet now grown in many parts of the New World, Chenin Blanc is one of the most versatile and highly regarded white wine grape varietals on earth. These green skinned grapes hold a relatively high acid content, and as such can be used for making still white wines of exceptional quality, as well as superb sparkling wines (such as the Crémant wines of the Loire Valley) and extremely aromatic dessert wines. Their natural transparency means that they are a fine grape for expressing their terroir in the bottle, and winemakers often experiment with this varietal to coax unusual and intense flavors from the grapes, such as allowing the development of noble rot on the fruit in order to make sweet and viscous wines of a unique character.
One of the more unusual French grape varietals, Melon de Bourgogne has been grown in and around the Loire Valley for several hundred years. In fact, this grape was first planted in the Loire region of Pays Nantais back in the mid 17th century, after a devastating frost decimated most of the red grapes which were typical in the area. The winemakers of Pays Nantais were keen to cultivate vines which were hardy, high yielding, and capable of surviving another such frost, and so turned their attention to Melon de Bourgogne for this very reason. The native home of the varietal is actually in Burgundy, where it is still grown to a lesser extent.
Because Melon de Bourgogne produces naturally heavy yields, the vintners of Pays Nantais go to great lengths to reduce the amount of fruit the vines bear. This allows the finest characteristics of the grape to come forward, and also opens up the opportunity for it to express the wonderful granite and schist soils in which the vines are grown. Melon de Bourgogne is a minerally white wine grape varietal, with a very subtle set of fruit flavors. It is prized for its freshness and brightness, and is seeing a revival in the twenty first century as an excellent wine for pairing with a wide range of foods.