Champagne
January 24, 2008
1996 Lanson Brut Gold Label - Champagne Steal at Under $50!
Today I bring you what is the first ever Champagne "Back up the Truck" - Lanson's 1996 Brut Gold Label!
Lanson is one of Champagne's oldest houses with a style that balances chiseled, razor-sharp minerality with an outrageous purity of fruit. Take this detail-oriented style and match it to the muscle of the 1996 vintage - one of the 20th century's greatest - and you get a wine of dazzling focus and super-charged intensity.
Now, consider the price. The fact that we can sell the 1996 Lanson Brut Gold Label at $48.50 - the lowest price in the nation - represents a rare buying opportunity. Keep in mind regular non-vintage bottlings of the Grande Marque houses are pushing this price-point while the NV bottlings of top Growers are at $45 and above!
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Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 12:41 PM
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December 14, 2007
2007 Crush Wine of the Year: Krug Grande Cuvee
Choosing any one wine, out of a year's worth of incredible experiences, is a daunting task.
Though in a way, this year is a bit easier for me. I've been a passionate drinker/collector of Champagne since I first began my adventure into wine over 17 years ago. 2007 is unquestionably the year Champagne came of age, both at the retail level and at auction. Collector/investor interest in top cuvees is at an all time high - Champagne has now joined the ranks of Bordeaux and Burgundy as one of the most sought-after and collectible wines in the world, with Krug and Dom Perignon leading the way.
With this in mind, my wine of the year came into sight as the obvious victor. This is a wine that takes tremendous amounts of time, care, labor and materials to produce - yet year in and year out it is consistent and complex. The 2007 Krug Grande Cuvee is the Crush Wine of the Year!
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Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 7:29 PM
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December 5, 2007
1999 Bollinger Grande Annee
The full-court press of the holidays is upon us! By the time the end of last week rolled around just about everybody needed a little pick-me-up. I was happy to celebrate our hard work an add a bit of excitement to our usual Friday staff tasting by popping the cork on some bubbles.
The unquestionable star of the night was Bollinger's 1999 Grande Annee. This is an amazing bottle of wine - the one that everyone was talking about Saturday morning. Rich and thunderous with a fantastic foundation of dark and sweet notes, baking spices, and the trademark "Bolli" cookie dough provide a solid core around which shavings of citrus added high notes and balancing accents. The concentration and length... nothing short of amazing.
For those of you who have never had vintage Bollinger, this is the perfect moment to indulge - with the party season beginning, I can't think of an under-$100 bottle of vintage Champagne that offers the finely detailed exuberance and pure hedonism of the Grande Annee.
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Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 12:21 PM
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September 27, 2006
Dom Pérignon Oenothèque 1990
One of the great champagnes of the 20th century is 1990 Dom Pérignon Oenothèque. This bottle absolutely blew me away the first time I had it, which was at the private vertical tasting Dom Pérignon held at Crush. Everyone agreed - even among other exceptional bottles, the 1990 Oenothèque had no peers. Though we also had to admit that the 1990 Rosé, served from magnum, was also outstanding - further testimony of the greatness of the 1990 vintage.
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Posted by Bob Schagrin at 2:52 PM