With New Year’s right around the corner, it’s worth taking a moment to highlight a top quality French Champagne that is worthy of your, and anyone’s, New Year’s Eve celebration. This one comes from Bruno Paillard, who established his Champagne house in 1981, at the ripe young age of 27. Since then his wines have become world recognized for quality.
These days Bruno is still the owner, and remains responsible for creating each and every blend. His multi-vintage wines utilize a variant of the Solera method, where older vintage wines are kept and blended into the current vintage. Each blend containe 20-50% of the older wines. He has over 30 years worth of vintage wine on hand, and this helps maintain a standard of quality year after year. Now, his daughter Alice is increasing her involvement in the production and marketing of the wine, and it looks like Bruno Paillard will remain family owned for at least another generation.
We have the Rosé Première Cuvée on hand for review. This wine is a almost all Pinot Noir, with just a touch of Chardonnay added for balance. It is a blend of 25 different vintages, going back to 1985. The wine spent three years on the lees, and another five months in the bottle after disgorgement. This is an Extra Brut, and so is very dry. The dosage, in which the winemaker adds some wine and sugar back into the Champagne to achieve his desired finish, is also very low. Let’s see what we thought:
Wine: Bruno Paillard Rosé Première Cuvée
Winery Location: Reims, Champagne, France
Tasted By: Neil and Cyndi Date: Dec 2019
Tasting Notes: this is a beautiful golden salmon color. The nose is full of red fruits, with strawberry and other berries. On the palate it is crisp, very dry, has some wonderful fruit, a little toast and finishes long. This is clearly extremely well made and top quality. If you like top tier French Champagne, you will like this.
Price Point – $60 SRP
Would We Buy It? – We would definitely buy this for a special occasion, for the Champagne lovers in the group. This is not an off dry, easy drinking crowd pleaser. It is a serious, extra brut Champagne crowd pleaser.
A votre santé!
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