Why Sommeliers Are Obsessed With this Champagne 🍾 | Maison Penet

All right, so we are at Maison Paigné. That's it right over there.

There we go.

We are in la Montagne de Reims. This is a grower champagne house, so they are growing Pinot Noir mainly in Montagne de Reims, and we're going to be tasting a lot of Pinot Noir. We're in Verzy. Most of the wines here here are Grand Cru, so we're in— going to be in for something really fun. I think this will be really awesome. We have grower Champagne houses. They are growing, they're making the wine, they're doing everything all by themselves. This is actually quite a small house. You're really seeing every aspect of the space being used, from down in the cellar to family's houses nearby for bottling and aging. And this is the other side of Champagne that doesn't always come through. Because they're very large houses that are showcasing a different side of the region.

The cellars here are from the 1840s, 1850s.

Wow.

The cellars are reinforced with the millstone. Oh wow.

It's really lovely. Yeah, they're not usually directly underneath the houses.

They're usually off to the side somewhere. No, no. Here there are no cellars anymore because the village is getting down.

Yeah, exactly. So they're doing the bottling and everything over at his mother's house, which is 150 yards from here, and she has a really big backyard, so that's why they're able to do it. That's so cool. And then what region area are we in for the vineyards?

Uh, Montagne de Roncevaux. So here, uh, and that's what we're based everything around here, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

There are 6 hectares or 16 acres of vineyards in the Grand Cru.

Great! So room for some good wine because everything here is Grand Cru.

Oh. Yes, all these machines were used to do cellar duties. It was after the Industrial Revolution.

This is, I believe, for the dosage.

This one and this one. This one is older. Yeah. This one is a little bit younger.

Yeah, so that would be for the curditurage or for dosage? Both for dosage. The bottle would basically— smaller bottle would go here and they would add in the dosage after they do the disgorgement.

See, just that?

Oh, okay. And the same thing happens with this, but you would basically only get to do 2 bottles at a time. Everything is done in the machines, so they would all be spinning and happening a lot faster than this, but this would be one at a time. They'd be adding in the dosage.

And what's this? It was for corking. So here we put hot boiled water, steam. The corks here stayed humid, so it was easy to put them in.

When the corks are humid because they're so large, you need them to be a little bit more malleable, and then they get shoved into the much tinier hole that is the bottle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a Blanc de Blancs, and it's coming from the terroir of Blancs de Noirs, so it's from this area, from Montandrin, but it's just 100% Chardonnay versus 100% Pinot Noir. Color is so beautiful, almost a straw-toned kind of color. I always really like Chardonnay wines because they're really nice and generous in that way. It's like vanilla and crunchy apple, but it's a very leaner style across the board. It's not the over-the-top version of Chardonnay. It's really kind of structured and built forward, so it's kind of funny to see that when you also see it in Pinot Noir from the terroir kind of like is a bit bolder and rounder, but it's got that crisp, leaner finish, that almost brilliance coming from that terroir. It's really nice, really quite beautiful wine. This is the Alexandre Peignet Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Nemar, and it's a Brut Nature. This basically means that once the wine goes through its second fermentation and it's disgorged, it is not topped up with a sweet dosage. It's just topped up with more of the same wine. And that makes it for being a very, very low sugar content. It's Blanc de Noirs, so it has a little bit of a kind of color to it, slightly copper tone, because we have all Pinot Noir grapes. And you get that linear-ness, that almost berry notes that you can get from a Pinot Noir in the Blanc de Noirs. On the palate, we get tons of minerality, that almost chalky minerality this region is known for, plus a very ripping finish with that bright, almost brilliant acidity. It's kind of diamonds shining on the palate if you can actually eat them. But this is truly a wine that's showcasing this Grand Cru. So we are tasting with winemaker Alexander, and you know, it's really cool because all of his wines are based around terroir, the sense of place en Bourgogne, and then also this really great levity and brilliance on the palate. This is what the winery has been known for, and this is what they're really focusing on continuing forward and bringing into what's happening in the winery today. So the name of— how do you pronounce this? This is Les Ferrands, and this is a 70-30% split in the vineyard, at the vineyard level. So basically that means that you've planted them together, you're harvesting them together.

Yes.

And then they're just coming into here, being fermented together, and then kind of creating this all together. So how do you know it's 70-30?

Because I count the number of cases that are Chardonnay, the number of cases that are Pinot Noir.

Oh, for the rows?

No, not the rows, the cases.

The cases that come in. Oh, so they're picked separately?

No, they're picked all together. Well, sometimes a little bit, mostly separately.

Mostly separately.

Sometimes there are cases that are— there's a mix, so I try to come up with a number.

Oh, okay, okay.

So, and it varies from one year to another.

So it could be 60/40, it could be 70/30 to 80/20.

It could go as low as 55/45.

Okay, so then, so it's just— so for this year, the best guess we have is 70/30. Okay, cool. What do you think this vineyard kind of showcases in the glass?

It showcases our chalky soil.

Okay.

Very sort of thin soil and the plot is southeast facing.

Mm-hmm.

So you get very nice maturation, very nice ripeness from August till the harvest.

The ripeness is really quite nice in the glass. So it's very, very ripe fruit, very orchard. The other two wines that we had tried are a little bit more linear, especially on the nose, and these are very ripe fruit, expressive in that way.

That comes from the orientation of the plot and the elevation as well.

And this is the current release?

This is the current release, yeah, 2022.

2010.

So we specialize also in long-aged, extra-aged, vintage.

So that is math. How many years on the lees of 2010 harvest, then starting lees fermentation 2011? Okay, 12 years in total. It's really lovely on the palate. You get that— what I'm noticing in your range line of wines is that there is a nice brilliance of acidity. It's very bright and lifted and pulled really high up on the palate, which is quite nice.

That's our style. Yeah, we, and we work without malolactic fermentation. My father and my grandfather did that, so no malolactic. I kept the same approach.

Okay, so just as a little FYI, no malolactic is really cool because technically what's happening is you're not having the malic acid turn into lactic acid. Malic acid is the same acid in apple, lactic acid same acid in milk. You're not having that conversion happen, which means that the wines are keeping this brilliant, brilliant acidity and not having that kind of softer acidity that you you can have. With the long aging, you get this nuttiness and generosity, but kind of this really great backbone.

There we go.

And this particular plot gives a very nice balance to it. Every year, you know, year on year, you get the same, you know, balance. You could get a little bit of variations. In general, this plot is a very nicely balanced champagne. Some other wines in our range have a more linear, higher acidity levels, but yeah, this is—

this one's the most— you feel it.

It is one of our most representative plots in the range.

Okay, cool. And then since we're already talking about plots, this is the Les Épinettes.

It's another one of our very nice single vineyard champagnes.

But this is 100% Pinot Noir. Okay. And then, so what's the aspect ratio that makes Les Épinettes different? Because they're all coming from this area.

The elevation is different, it's lower.

Lower.

So usually the ripeness is, I mean, we tend to harvest a little bit later. It's a colder area.

Oh, so it's kind of sunken in a bit more in terms of holding in that cold.

Yeah, so we usually retain more acidity in this part, but the soil is very thin too, so you get also the minerality.

This has such a generous nose though. It's really a boldly generous nose, very floral.

Keep in mind it's 2011, so it's—

I know, but still, like, it's giving Pinot Noir, but at the same time, it's a very generous Pinot Noir. This is the most generous wine on the palate that I've tried from your range so far.

Okay.

Yeah, and you still have that brightness to it in the finish, but it really feels— this is more— it's a linen suit versus a wool suit or a more structured version. It's kind of a little bit more relaxed and more generous in its way. I don't know.

This plot usually gives Champagnes the higher acidity.

Really?

That you can pair with fish, for example, given the linear aspect. Now, this particular vintage, '11, was the earliest harvest we've had in the last—

so it was a bigger, warmer vintage?

Yeah, we harvested— we started harvesting on the 24th of August.

Wow, okay, so maybe this is the vintage because there's a lot of generosity in this, and if it was an early harvest, it means it was a warmer vintage off the bat, so that's probably what I'm experiencing. I guess it's just the vintage overall. I also haven't tried any of his wines before, but that's going to change.

So, La Croix Lemoyniers 2012, so it's a different vintage, of course, but more important than the vintage is the type of soil that is thicker with some clay. And then underneath, of course, you have your vines. And it's an old vine, that's why the roots can go deeper in the soil. So on the attack, it's rounder than the previous ones.

Yeah, it's almost like fruity earthiness almost too, to this one. It's a little bit more fruit with leaves, I find.

Usually this plot gives a wine that has a strong red fruit character.

Yeah, but berries that are still on the vine, not pulled off.

Oh yeah, I see what you mean.

Fresh ones, very, very fresh.

It's round. And then the mid-palate is round too. And then in the finish you get the minerality that you get in the other wines. The texture is different too.

No, this is really— the minerality is quite strong in this one. I always love really great minerality where you can have— great minerality to me almost tastes when you have acidity kind of come in and coat it. It's a rock that's been brushing over with water and imagine eating that. This has really got some great structure on the center of the palate with the mineralogy. Really kind of sticks in it. Yeah, it's cool. How did you—

Yeah, I was working with my grandfather here during the harvest, helping out. I had my degree for pruning the vines at the age of 16.

Oh wow, that's so cool!

Then I studied engineering, mechanical engineering.

Oh, that's so great!

I worked in other areas, other businesses.

She's an engineer too. Yeah, yeah, they're two daughters. Isn't that cute? Colleen and Candice. So this is Tell me the region of this one again, the 2009. This is— what region was this one again?

This is Verzenay.

So this is Verzenay 2009, first vintage that he made, and this is 2010. The difference is we have barrel aging for how many months?

8 months.

8 months barrel aging, but the blend is 50/50. Okay, same blend. So these two are basically complements of each other, showcasing the different regions that he's made. All right, let's see. This is It's really, really generous on the nose. The oxidative style of the barrel aging really comes through so nicely because you get— and you're using mainly neutral barrels overall.

There's a little bit of new oak in here.

Yeah, it comes with just a touch of salt.

Plus, you know, there's extra age. Talking about a wine that has 13, 14 years old.

Oh wow. So this has to go through malolactic at least at some point, this one? No. No malolactic, just the barrel. That's fabulous. I love that because you're basically stopping your, your winemaking at different points and then moving it into different directions. This is really cool. This is a very engineer way to think about winemaking.

Perhaps, I guess that's my engineering background.

I think it might be, yeah, maybe. Because, you know, it's so easy for it to just go through malolactic fermentation if it goes into a barrel. You have to actively stop and then move it into something else and then keep going because that brightness of acidity is so there, but that oxidization kind of just washes over the palette in such a beautiful way. Hi, Carrot!

Mm-hmm.

He likes my scratches, so he's back. He's like, "That was good. You can scratch me some more." Oh, there we go. Okay, okay. Thank you so much for watching this episode. Make sure to pop a like on this video and And if you want to join in on all the fun, hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so you won't miss a single drop of all future wine adventures. Cheers, everyone!