Champagne
Champagne, the epitome of elegance and celebration, is widely regarded as the pinnacle of sparkling wines. As one of the most prestigious wine regions in the world, Champagne has captured the hearts of wine enthusiasts and connoisseurs with its exceptional quality, refined craftsmanship, and iconic vineyards.
Historically, Champagne has been dominated by some world-acclaimed Champagne House, which source grapes and harvest from Champagne growers. These famous Grandes Marques include Louis Roederer (Cristal), Dom Pérignon, Krug, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, and Bollinger, all of them are revered for their notable names that display unrivalled winemaking prestige and pedigree.
In the recent decade, the emerging Grower Champagne trend in Champagne is shaking up the industry by challenging the dominance of the big Champagne houses. These small-scale producers, also known as "Récoltant-Manipulant" or RM, grow their own grapes and produce their own Champagne, showcasing the unique terroir and character of their vineyards. Jacques Selosse, Ulysse Collin, and Champagne Vilmart & Cie are among the most prominent names in this trend, producing some truly artisanal and terroir-driven Champagnes.
Champagne is primarily made from three main grape varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. These grapes are carefully selected and blended to create a harmonious and complex flavour profile. Chardonnay contributes elegance, freshness, and finesse, while Pinot Noir adds structure, depth, and fruitiness. Pinot Meunier brings a touch of roundness and vibrancy to the blend.
The region of Champagne is divided into several distinct sub-regions, including Montagne de Reims, Côte des Blancs, and Vallée de la Marne. Each sub-region has its unique terroir, characterized by variations in soil composition and microclimates, which influence the style and character of the wines produced.
Champagne offers various styles, from non-vintage blends to vintage cuvées and prestigious prestige cuvées. While Non-vintage Champagnes typically epitomise the house style, the vintage Champagnes are made from grapes harvested in one particular year (top vintages such as 1996, 2002, 2008 etc), in which these wines showcase the unique characteristics of the specific vintage.
The prestige cuvées, often the flagship wines of the renowned Champagne houses, are the pinnacle of excellence. These exceptional Champagnes are created using the finest grapes, the most meticulous winemaking techniques and often benefit from extended ageing to achieve unparalleled complexity and finesse.
Champagne is synonymous with celebration, elegance, and luxury. Its effervescent charm and timeless appeal have made it the drink of choice for countless special occasions and memorable moments. With its rich history, iconic vineyards, and unrivalled quality, Champagne continues to captivate wine enthusiasts and connoisseurs alike.
Champagne
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Champagne | 1 | 95 (VN) | HK$27,105.00 | |||||
Vinous (95)The clear highlight among these new releases, the 2008 Blanc de Noirs Côte de Béchalin is deep, powerful and beautifully layered in the glass. Resonant and generous yet with remarkable translucence, the 2008 is impeccable in its balance. There is plenty of nuance in the orchard fruit flavors, but above all else, the 2008 impresses with its total sense of harmony and proportion. The exuberant, racy finish only adds to the wine's inviting personality. Disgorged: April 2015. |
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Champagne | 1 | 93 (VN) | HK$23,435.00 | |||||
Vinous (93)The 2012 Blanc de Noirs Côte de Bechalin La Parcelle is bright, precise and beautifully lifted. Orchard fruit, mint, white pepper and floral notes lend brightness. This is a decidedly taut, vibrant Blanc de Noirs, especially considering the vintage. Gracious, medium in body and supremely inviting, the Côte de Bechalin is another stellar wine in this set of new releases. No dosage. Disgorged: April, 2019. |
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Champagne | 1 | - | HK$23,345.00 | |||||
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Champagne | 1 | 88 (VN) | HK$28,630.00 | |||||
Vinous (88)The 2011 Blanc de Noirs Les Ursules is quite delicate and understated in this vintage. Crushed flowers, herbs, dried cherries, kirsch, mint and anise are all nicely delineated in the glass. The aromatics are lifted and decidedly high-toned, while the wine lacks its customary balance, which brings out some angularity. The 2011 offers reasonably good balance within the context of the vintage, but not more. Tasted two times with some variation. Disgorged: April 2015. |
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Champagne | 2 | 94 (VN) | HK$20,225.00 | |||||
Vinous (94)The 2015 Blanc de Noirs Les Ursules is fascinating to taste next to the other Pinot Champagnes, all of which are brighter. Here, the weight and gravitas are very much front and center. Red cherry, kirsch, plum, mint and spice all blossom in the glass. The Ursules needs air to shine. A bit of time in the glass really brings out the creaminess and volume of the Pinot fruit. This is such an inviting and expressive Champagne. No dosage. Disgorged: April, 2019. |
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Champagne | 4 | 95 (VN) | HK$23,125.00 | |||||
Vinous (95)The 2016 Blanc de Noirs Les Ursules is a dense, powerful wine. Next to the Presle, it is deeper, richer and also more packed. Most of Bouchard's Champagnes need a few years in bottle to blossom. That is certainly the case here. The 2016 is impressive, but it needs time. As always, this tiny parcel measuring just 0.9 hectares yields a layered Blancs de Noirs with notable resonance and character. Zero dosage. Disgorged: April, 2020. |
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Champagne | 1 | 97 (WA) | HK$8,560.00 | |||||
Wine Advocate (97)The 2017 Blanc de Noirs Les Ursules is superb, mingling aromas of pear, mandarin and stone fruit with hints of fresh bread, pastry cream and iodine in an inviting mélange. Full-bodied, layered and fleshy, it's a concentrated, chiseled Ursules that's built for the cellar, with racy acids and a long, penetrating finish. While the reputation of the 2017 vintage in Champagne isn't great, you wouldn't know that from tasting this brilliant cuvée. As readers will remember, Les Ursules was the vineyard with which Cédric Bouchard began Roses de Jeanne, and he notes that of all the wines in his range, it's always the highest in acidity, the slowest to ferment and the slowest to conclude its malolactic fermentation. |
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Champagne | 1 | 97 (WA) | HK$17,435.00 | |||||
Wine Advocate (97)The 2017 Blanc de Noirs Les Ursules is superb, mingling aromas of pear, mandarin and stone fruit with hints of fresh bread, pastry cream and iodine in an inviting mélange. Full-bodied, layered and fleshy, it's a concentrated, chiseled Ursules that's built for the cellar, with racy acids and a long, penetrating finish. While the reputation of the 2017 vintage in Champagne isn't great, you wouldn't know that from tasting this brilliant cuvée. As readers will remember, Les Ursules was the vineyard with which Cédric Bouchard began Roses de Jeanne, and he notes that of all the wines in his range, it's always the highest in acidity, the slowest to ferment and the slowest to conclude its malolactic fermentation. |
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Champagne | 10 | 92 (WA) | HK$4,205.00 | |||||
Wine Advocate (92)Based on the 2012 vintage and disgorged in 2019, Heidsieck's NV Blanc de Blancs continues to show nicely, exhibiting aromas of lemon oil, dried white flowers, green apple and walnuts. It's medium to full-bodied, taut and chiseled. If anything it exhibits a more reserved, austere profile than it did last year. Based on this showing, it's evolving more slowly than I anticipated, and I'd be inclined to counsel readers to wait another year or two before popping corks. |
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Champagne | 1 | 19 (JR) | HK$14,900.00 | |||||
Jancis Robinson (19)Still greenish gold. Still lots of freshness on the nose. Noble and magnificent. Savoury and yet lacy. Full phenolic ripeness (a bit more than 2004, which is currently embargoed). Dances on the palate. Lovely, very lightly toasty, mature Chardonnay flavours but definitely tight-knit champagne not burgundy! So clean. |
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Champagne | 1 | 98 (WE) | HK$9,065.00 | |||||
Wine Enthusiast (98)This is an iteration of a legendary Champagne. Perfectly balanced, still packed with white fruit but just touching nuttiness, the wine is at its peak. Celebrating one of the great Champagne vintages of this century, this wine is totally memorable and magnificent. Folio Fine Wine Partners. |
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Champagne | 1 | 96 (WS) | HK$7,935.00 | |||||
Wine Spectator (96)A textbook blanc de blancs in a relatively opulent style, with ample grilled nut, brioche and spice character alongside classic flavors of poached apricot, kumquat, oyster shell and lemon blossom. This rich profile is well-defined by racy acidity, sleek and well-cut, driving the long, lacy finish. A beauty. Drink now through 2035. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 4,500 cases made, 185 cases imported. |
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Champagne | 1 | 97 (WE) | HK$4,910.00 | |||||
Wine Enthusiast (97)One of the great Blanc de Blancs Champagnes, this wine only hints of its age and maturity. Up front, the wine has layers of white fruits and a steely texture. It is behind those features that the brioche and almond character begins to show. This is a wonderfully balanced wine, ready to drink now. |
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Champagne | 1 | 97 (WE) | HK$5,550.00 | |||||
Wine Enthusiast (97)One of the great Blanc de Blancs Champagnes, this wine only hints of its age and maturity. Up front, the wine has layers of white fruits and a steely texture. It is behind those features that the brioche and almond character begins to show. This is a wonderfully balanced wine, ready to drink now. |
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Champagne | 18 | 19.5+ (MJ) | HK$8,645.00 | |||||
Matthew Jukes (19.5+)2014 Blanc des Millénaires is only the 8th vintage of this wine released since the inaugural wine in 1983. Let’s not beat around the bush – is a spectacular Champagne. To put this wine to the test, I opened my sample bottle and tasted it with four wine trade Titans. A buyer, a retailer, a journalist and an importer were all struck dumb by this wine. I told them they were not allowed to spread the word until today – which as I understand it is the release date. I set the scene for this tasting by opening a magnum of another famous Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru before pouring Blanc de Millénaires to ensure that everyone’s’ palates were in match fit condition to assess our hero wine. After the cooing and nodding abated regsarding the much-loved magnum, I popped the cork on BdM and poured one of the most colourless Champagnes I can remember. And then the magic started. After the sensual creaminess of our ‘apéritif Blanc de Blancs’ it was immediately apparent that ’14 Blanc de Millénaires was cut from very different cloth. This is a raspingly refreshing wine. It is so precision-cut you might want to wear gloves. There is no doubt this unnervingly keen creation is not one for beginners. And if you feel a tear fighting to set free from a loose duct, just let it go. This wine is all about emotion and you must be leaden-hearted for it not to move you profoundly with its laser-sighted flavours and extraordinary tension. Flavour-wise it is incredible how so much direction and decisiveness can emerge from such a seemingly demure wine. Approaching its tenth birthday, and with eight of these years spent on its lees, it seems like this wine has been chiselled out of a gleamingly white chalk sarcophagus as it sits naked in the glass, and there is so much potential here it takes the breath away. My intrepid group could not summon the energy to scratch our collective heads. There was just a collegiate sense of disbelief and then, a couple of minutes later, an exhalation of exultation – a synchronous moan of pure joy that somehow kicked us all back into the moment, granting us permission to acknowledge what had just happened. Given the experience around the table, we were of one voice – this is a landmark vintage for Heidsieck’s incredible Chardonnay and while it is straight-jacketed, brutally honest, and epically long, there are just enough white florals, tender sablé tones and dramatic citrus zestiness, to signal that this wine will be nothing short of era-defining given time. |
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Champagne | 1 | 97 (WE) | HK$7,800.00 | |||||
Wine Enthusiast (97)Aged for 10 years on its lees before disgorgement, this impressive vintage Champagne is perfectly mature. The touches of maturity have moved the wine into richness, the fruit and acidity filling out and deepening. This is a great Champagne from a great vintage, ready to drink. |
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Champagne | 1 | 96 (ALR) | HK$3,840.00 | |||||
Andreas Larsson (96)Bright light golden colour with fine and lively bubbles. Nice purity on the nose, chalky and flinty with ripe but fresh yellow fruit like peach, passion fruit, lemongrass, fresh butter, brioche and floral notes. The palate shows a nice bite and precision, lovely freshness, fine extract, rounded creaminess with layers of succulent stone fruit, crushed nuts and pastry notes. Very long and lingering finish, still in a youthful stage but great potential here. |
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Champagne | 1 | 94-97 (EA) | HK$4,515.00 | |||||
Essi Avallen MW (94-97)Charles Heidsieck’s racy 2013 vintage is a blend of ten Grands and Premiers Crus: Oger, Vertus, Chouilly, Cuis, Verzy, Aÿ, Ludes, Ambonnay, Tauxières and Avenay-Val d’Or. Usually appreciated for the richness and toast-enriched complexity of its Vintage cuvées, Charles Heidsieck 2013 plays on totally different assets, cool refinement and silky linearity. Despite excellent ripeness of the grapes, the October harvest brought about a tight acid line and fine aromatic restraint to it. Toastiness is subtle for the time being, but remarkably elegant, perfectly lining the sweet orchard fruit profile. Its best quality is the prism like radiance and purity of fruit. Showing highly youthful, this wine promises to be slowly but gracefully ageing. Suitably dosed at 9g/l. |
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Champagne | 1 | 96.0 | HK$1,920.00 | |||||
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Champagne | 1 | 95 (DC) | HK$2,910.00 | |||||
Decanter (95)Based on the terrific Pinot Noir from the 2012 vintage, this is a top-dollar pink at a reasonable price. Fresh, intense and opulent, but also refined and of great class. All sorts of sensuous fruits, including black cherry, plum and even prunes, are checked by freshness and vigour. Dosage 11g/l. Disgorged in 2017 Read more at http://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews/france/champagne/charles-heidsieck-brut-reserve-rose-champagne-france-17347#d6DldfRV3Wui3eXB.99 |
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Champagne | 1 | - | HK$6,888.00 | |||||
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Champagne | 2 | - | HK$7,565.00 | |||||
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Champagne | 1 | - | HK$15,000.00 | |||||
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Champagne | 1 | - | HK$29,235.00 | |||||
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Champagne | 1 | 98 (JS) | HK$4,970.00 | |||||
James Suckling (98)An amazing 2008 rosé Champagne that has all the structure and aromatic complexity - sushi ginger, oolong tea and caramelized mandarin orange - we associate with this vintage, but also has more charm than most. On the palate, this has stunning concentration, yet is diamond bright. The interplay of creaminess, fine tannins and mineral acidity builds and builds at the breathtaking finish. The color comes from about 7% pinot noir red wine, partly from the little-known Les Riceys in the far south of Champagne. Drink or hold. |
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Champagne | 1 | 93 (WA) | HK$6,060.00 | |||||
Wine Advocate (93)This bottle of the 2005 Brut Rosé was disgorged in 2017 with ten grams per liter dosage. It's a lovely wine that offers up complex notes of red apple, mandarin, white cherries, brioche and nutmeg. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, pure and vibrant, with a fleshy core of fruit, brisk acids, a refined mousse and lovely chalky grip on the finish. This is a serious, vinous rosé that numbers among the challenging 2005 vintage's successes. |
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Champagne | 2 | - | HK$6,495.00 | |||||
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Delve into the refined indulgence of Charles Heidsieck, La Collection Crayeres Blanc des Millenaires, Champagne 1983. This incredible champagne hails from the lauded region of Reims, France, marrying the meticulous methodology of Charles Heidsieck with 100% Chardonnay grapes meticulously selected from choice vineyards. The 1983 vintage embodies a complex array of flavours, displaying elements of citrus, brioche, honeyed almonds, and a refreshing mineral undertone. Charles Heidsieck's notable reputation in the champagne world stems from their commitment to quality, as seen in the practice of long-term aging in their 11th-century chalk cellars known affectionately as 'crayères'. This particular blanc des blancs, encapsulating their mastery, offers a refined mousse, an exuberant bouquet and a delicate, lasting finish. Reflecting a year of exceptional weather, the Charles Heidsieck, La Collection Crayeres Blanc des Millenaires, Champagne 1983 presents the connoisseur with an exquisite opportunity to engage with this pinnacle of French viticulture. |
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Champagne | 1 | - | HK$4,025.00 | |||||
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The Chartogne Taillet Chemin de Reims Extra Brut 2019 is an exquisite champagne, internationally renowned for its exceptional quality and distinctive character. This visual symphony of pale gold evokes an alluring bouquet poised with lemon zest, crisp apple, and hint of toasted almond, befitted for the most discerning palette. Skillfully crafted by Chartogne Taillet, an illustrious champagne house nestled in the village of Merfy, exhibiting a formidable mastery of their craft gleaned over generations. The 2019 bottles were meticulously produced using a blend of highly-prized Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, capturing a year of ideal weather conditions in the Champagne region of France. Characteristics of its terroir are elegantly expressed through a subtle minerality and softly effervescent bubbles. The Chartogne Taillet Chemin de Reims Extra Brut 2019 personifies complex sophistication and is a testament to the intrinsic beauty of artisanal winemaking. |
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Champagne | 1 | - | HK$5,060.00 | |||||
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Devotees of sublime Champagne will revel in the craftsmenship of the Chartogne-Taillet Beaux Sens Extra Brut 2013. Artfully crafted in the celebrated wine region of Merfy, France, this illustrious bottle is the result of meticulous vintner, Alexandre Chartogne's unique vision. A blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier, sourced from Chartogne's coveted 'Sens' and 'Beaux Sens' vineyards, this vintage was given an exacting 48-month cellar period. True to its Montagne de Reims origins, the Chartogne-Taillet Beaux Sens Extra Brut 2013 exhibits an elegant mousse and a nuanced balance of chalky minerality, orchard fruits nuances, and a whisper of brioche. Its vivacious acidity, complex structure and persistent finish put it on the forefront of organic and biodynamic Champagne production. Notably, it’s an Extra Brut cuvée with 2 grams per litre dosage, affording a discerning dryness that places it amongst the exemplary Champagne experiences. |
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Champagne | 1 | - | HK$12,350.00 | |||||
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Chartogne-Taillet Hors Serie Extra Brut Grand Cru 2018 is a prestigious selection from the venerable Chartogne-Taillet vineyard located in Merfy village, Champagne region, France. This opulent wine brims with well-defined characters from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, grown exclusively on the winery's grand cru site. Exhibiting meticulous vinification, this pristinely bottled wine undergoes wild yeast fermentation in oak barrels followed by unhurried aging process adding to its finesse. Alexandre Chartogne vineyard’s reputation rests upon its commitment to hand-harvesting ensuring only supreme quality grapes find way into each cuvee. The Chartogne-Taillet Hors Serie Extra Brut Grand Cru 2018 showcases profound layering of crisp apple, honey, and lightly toasted brioche, circumvented by exhilarating acidity and minerality. A polished wine of this magnitude boasts a persistent, creamy finish, making it a compelling choice for discerning palates. Elevate your fine wine collection with the impeccable Chartogne-Taillet Hors Serie Extra Brut Grand Cru 2018. |
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