jeudi 14 novembre 2019

Champagne Petitjean-Pienne - Cuvée Réserve

Guide VERON des Champagnes 2019

(around 19 euros per bottle)

Harmonious bottle.

Aspect:

Gold, brilliant.

Fine bubbles and regular bead of foam.

Generous tears.

Nose:

Touching, thanks to the long period between disgorgement and shipment (3 to 6 months).

Heady maturity with radiant aromas of brioche and roasted coffee, result of 8 years of ageing on laths of the bottles before riddling and disgorgement.

Later, the Chardonnay becomes more confident with scents of candied citrus fruits, apple, pear and white flowers, highlighted by a mentholated breath.

Palate:

Chalky minerality at the opening, reinforced by the selection of the best juices (cuvée) during the slow pressing of the grapes (4 hours) in the traditional square press (dating from 1938) of the house.

The joyful tension slowly gives way to delicacy, supported by the ageing for several months of the base wines on fine lees before blending, delicately underlined by the dosage with 6 g/L of sugar added at disgorgement.

Finish with a remarkable presence, definitely the characteristic sign of the old plots of vines (30 years old in average), punctuated by subtle spices.
Impressive length on the palate.

For this Cuvée Réserve, Denis Petitjean was able to blend a majority of base wines from 2009, and from 2008 and 2007, from the Grands Crus of Cramant, Avize and Chouilly, to offer us a brilliant champagne with a very good value for money.

To taste as an aperitif or during a meal, with a fried veal fillet and macaroni gratin with herbs, for example.

Fifth generation of passionate wine growers, Denis Petitjean and his wife Dominique, joined in 2004 by their daughter Marie, cultivate with passion their 4 hectares vineyard mostly planted in the Grands Crus of Cramant, Avize and Chouilly, in the Côte des Blancs. Grapes harvested by hand are vinified with care, in small volumes, to compose each year around 25,000 bottles of authentic champagnes, variations inspired around the Chardonnay, marketed under the brand created in 1981.

Champagne Petitjean-Pienne
4 allée des bouleaux
51 530 Cramant
Tel.: +33 (0)3 26 57 58 26