Our local Kysela rep Mary Leigh brought us a special surprise in both Carole Champion and her family's two excellent Grand Cru champagnes : a brut n.v. and a 2000 vintage champagne, both from the town of Chouilly. Carole has been here for part of the summer and it was a real surprise and pleasure to find her here with Mary this past Wednesday. I had never heard of her family's bubbly and so it was a totally new and thoroughly pleasurable experience for me. I liked both bottles and would buy both for the store for the fact that they are so closely priced and I think that for the extra five dollars the 2000 brut vintage champagne delivers more bang for the buck.
My over all impression of both bottles is that they are really well-knit, complex yet thoroughly balanced, fresh, lively and entertaining on many surprising/pleasing levels all wrapped into one over the course of their contact and long, lingering finish on the palate. Wow. I was impressed with both the bouquet as well as the taste from the first start to the very last itty bitty blessedly delightful finish! The 2000 is just even more layered/aired/complex and profound? Yes, more profound. It just has more impact, more star-power as in the skies and that ability to relax one even more and make them starry-eyed?!? These are all interesting ideas.
We are hoping to get Carole here sometime in early September or late August. We will see. Stay-tuned. It will be exciting to have them here. I can see why Fran Kysela bought them for his wholesale house. Smart move Fran.
This is what Carole wrote before leaving the store : " Ce fut un reel plaisir de decouvrir Cleveland Park, vous-etes fabuleux, avec une touche de jolie qui va rendre vos clients heureux!
Une grande joie de vous connaitre! " Carole Champion.
For more technical info contact Carole at : carole.champion@laposte.net.
Thanks Carole, the feeling is mutual. It will be great to get you here to taste wines with us sometime soon. Thanks Mary for bringing us Carole and her two fabulous Grand Cru champagnes from Chouilly, Champagne, France. Cheers, TONY
3 comments:
What a family name for a family champagne house: CHAMPION! Even if the product is mediocre they still can create a market based on the cool name. Sounds like these are excellent champagnes though - look forward to possibly trying them. We do a lot with Kysela where I work, but we do a lot of DI champagne, so we'll see if it's something that we get to taste.
ca donne envie tt ca
The photographer should drink moderately ;)
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