Every Vintage at Once
Substance carries no vintage because it carries all of them — a solera begun in 1986, Avize Chardonnay only. At a sushi counter, this is the rare Champagne where 'it tastes like sherry' is the highest compliment.
Vintage NV
7 notes
Selosse, but Not the Solera
Everyone says 'solera' the moment Selosse comes up — but V.O. isn't one. It is three consecutive vintages from the chalk heights of Avize, Cramant and Oger, and it drinks closer to mature white Burgundy than to Champagne.
Reserve Wines Kept in Magnum
The name was invented in 1911 by a London agent who thought 'non-vintage brut' undersold the wine. What makes it Bollinger is what nobody sees: old barrels, and a library of reserve wines kept under cork in magnums for years before they are riddled, disgorged and poured back into the blend.
Two Squares on Frosted Glass
An Irpinian estate built after an earthquake, a consultant from Avize named Anselme Selosse, a bottle designed by Massimo Vignelli, and the grape of Taurasi turned into a pale traditional-method rosé. DUBL is what happens when southern Italy decides to take sparkling wine seriously.
Not Less Than Fifty-One Percent Concord
The most famous kosher wine in the world is made from a grape bred in a Massachusetts garden in 1849, sweetened to hide its bitterness, and sold for decades mostly to people who were not Jewish. Two glasses, late on a Saturday.
The Opening Argument
A five-bottle counter dinner needed something to begin with that would not be forgotten by the time the DRC arrived. Substance — one village, one grape, every vintage since 1986 — was the answer.
Ten Years of Reserve
Half the blend is reserve wine averaging a decade in age. In a category where 'non-vintage' is usually shorthand for the current harvest with a little help, that is a different proposition entirely.