This Saturday I’ll be publishing a major survey of non vintage champagnes and tasting notes and scores on about 80 of them, from big names to small growers, are already on purple pages. It’s not often that one of the most delicious wines that I find in an extensive range is also one of the most keenly priced but such is the case with Pierre Moncuit Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs which has just been discounted by UK importers H & H Bancroft from £17.25 to £15.50 a bottle in a special offer which has been extended to 31 mar, a week on Thursday.
This family grower in Le Mesnil, run by the rather scary Nicole Moncuit, is widely admired in France and widely available in the US as well as in Belgium and Switzerland but for some reason has never managed to establish much of a reputation in the UK. This may be because the style of wine is so determinedly Côte des Blancs, very lively and delicate and extremely refreshing – an aperitif champagne par excellence. Many British champagne lovers seem determined to insist on sheer weight in their champagne choices. There’s nothing wrong with that but it is after all only one style of champagne.
The Moncuit family make their champagnes exclusively from their own 20 hectares of Chardonnay vines, mainly around Le Mesnil but supplemented by five in Sezanne to the south west from which they make the even less expensive Hugues de Coulmet cuvée. Their policy is to bottle one year’s produce at a time; they don’t blend in reserve wines. Only the wines they – for which read Nicole – see as genuinely superior are aged and sold as vintage dated champagne however. The NV cuvée that is currently shipped to H & H Bancroft is based on the exceptionally good 2002 vintage, but I tasted one based on the 2000 last November that was also very impressive, with a hint of iodine about its minerality which she assured me made it a great partner for shellfish.
See winesearcher.com for other international retailers of this wine, including several in the US who are offering it at under $30 a bottle. At the cellar door this cuvée was being offered for just 15 euros last November – making it well worth a day trip to Champagne for British hosts who need to buy champagne in quantity for a special event.
Other interesting champagnes worth looking at include the trio from Philizot, a new champagne house started by a young couple in Reuil, Vallée de la Marne whose wines are imported into the UK by Monmouth wine merchant Irma Fingal-Rock about whom I will soon be writing in detail on purple pages. The trio of champagnes Numéros 1, 2 and 3 are not dramatically much better quality than you would expect for £15.99 a bottle apiece, but they do provide an object lesson in Champagne grapes. Numéro 1 is all Chardonnay, and rather fresh and aggressive. Numéro 2 is all Pinot (quite a bit of Meunier as well as Noir, I suspect) with the perfume and weight of Champagne’s red grapes, while Numéro 3 is a blend that really is better and better balanced than the other two.
And while in an effervescent mood, with the forthcoming holiday weekend in mind, I bring to your attention another champagne bargain, F Vauversin Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru 1998 from a grower who sells grapes to Pol Roger in Oger-sur-Mesnil at just £18.95 from Wine Discoveries. This is a lovely, fully developed champagne that is quite ready to drink now, offering depth and richness without sweetness. There’s a toasty quality yet a bone dry finish. This wine, made from a fine vintage, is as clean as a whistle and certainly worth the money.
As usual, see the directory for details of how to contact these merchants in the UK and see www.winesearcher.com for retailers in other countries.