Well , some days ago we discovered within our private cellar 6 bottles without labels of a champenoise method made with pinot nero , chardonnay and pinot bianco aged 15 years . After a brief inspection , visual inspection , we decided to take a bottle and try it out .
You know , tasting a wine which you don’t know exactly how it could be and without have enough experience ( yep , sadly ) , it is impossible figure out what to expected from that product . We placed the bottle in the fridge just some minutes , afterward the temperature in the cellar is 13/14 degrees.
As i knew the blend used , i started to imagine the scents i would find . So , Chardonnay is a typical international grape used almost everywhere due to its capacity to develop flavor which derive first from the conditions in which the grapes are grown and second from the conditions of the wine production. This makes it easier for different wineries to produce markedly different Chardonnay wines. The most important flavors are : fruit – citrus- lemon -apple -pineapple -melon -herbal -grass -oak -smoke -cinnamon and also they depend on the vinification , growing , climate .
Pinot bianco is a native grape from Alsace region in France but also known in Italy as Pinot bianco. Is not an easy grape like the chardonnay and the cultivation needs a good and mite climate to produced quality wine . The most important flavors are : citrus, melon, pear, apricot and perhaps smokey or mineral undertones combined with characteristic high acidity.
Pinot nero or noir in France where it has one of the most perfect growing area , Burgundy . it is well known as a noble grape , very difficult to cultivate but which can give you a lot of satisfactions .Pinot Noir is a red grape which made red wine that typically exhibits fruit-forward character with strawberry, cherry, raspberry and blackberry fruit taking the cake for palate presence.It is also the starring of CHAMPENOISE METHOD . Notable earth-driven layers are also quite common in a glass of Pinot, with herbal, mushroom, leather, and game-like qualities being fairly familiar. Warm spice notes also make their way into the Pinot Noir palate profile, often in the form of cinnamon, clove and smoky, tobacco nuances.
So then we have opened the bottle afterward all these thoughts -.- . Well , in my opinion , taste a wine like these examples of experiments which need to be understand , figured out , felt in them , must be not less than a pleasure , not in wine dinner or in a kind of party but just in a quite place , no pressure , while your wine is dropping down in the glass and its aroma is filling up in your nose , make you lift up memories of past times , or whatever , because in this way you can really feel the wine .
The cork cap was really perfect without any trace of fault or mold . To understand if a cork is good or not just wait some time to see if the neck comes back or is trying to recover the normal position . More the wine is old more you need to wait . If the cork is good , the size of the neck will become larger , if it is not , the neck will remain the same without any moves .
We poured the glass and and the color was really good , straw gold color , clear , the bubbles were finr and persistent . The nose ( waiting 5 minutes the wine started to open all its aroma also because the temperature increased of 2/3 degrees . We tasted the wine at 9/10 degrees ) was full , ripe peach , apricot , cinnamon , light flavor of cheese , herbaceous , light toasted notes , a bit of honey and caramel and the mouth was really fresh , the acidity must be around 4 /4,5 points therefore it could be age for 3/5 years or more . Dry , mineral , good savory , clean , the bubbles were fine , smooth and soft but alive , really vibrant , i felt the fragrance of the bred , the aroma of peach and apricot . Wow , i looked to my father and i said : “why you never told me about this secret of these bottles ? “. he got me back that he has also some other ” experiments ” hidden in the cellar like passito , vin santo etc … he just forget sometime to have them around !
We paired this Champenoise really impressive with a Seasoned cheese from Piemonte and for give you an idea it is like Grana Padano but more tasty and with really a little bitter taste in the end . The wine since the hardness and softness were and are still in favor of the first , i can say that in 5 years we can get an amazing Champenoise method which will be never ….. made ! Yes because this was just an experiment , made in the land of a Charmat method so , if you start a decline every new ideas just to push more the incomes in your wallet loosing these amazing products … What can you say ?
Nothing , because i am just the owner of myself .
Have a nice tasting .
