Champagne
A wine can only truly be called Champagne if it is produced in the Champagne region about 90 miles northeast of Paris. Champagnes come from Epernay and are usually made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes, the latter of which are red. Chardonnay contributes finess and elegance; pinot noir, body and texture; and pinot meunier, fruitiness and earthiness. Blanc de Blancs is made from Chardonnay only. Usually, Champagne is fermented first in stainless steel vats. Champagne undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle to develop the bubbles.
Extra Brut Champagne is very very dry; Brut is very dry; Extra Dry is off-dry; Sec is lightly sweet (in spite of its name which means "dry"; Demi-Sec is sweet; and Doux is very sweet.
Champagne is most often paired with double or triple crème Brie, but also pairs well with mild blue cheese, Cheddar, Gouda, Emmentaler, hard cheeses such as Dry Jack or Parmigiano-Reggiano, and some hard goat or sheep cheeses.
Dom Pérignon 1998 $100? 12.5% alcohol. Dom Pérignon was named after a Benedictine monk (born Pierre Pérignon in 1640) who helped develop the Méthode Champenoise. I didn't have this with cheese. I had it in a strip club and it was spilled all over my dress by a drunk idiot. In the late 1920's, Moët and Chandon adopted the monk's name for their Cuvée. It was very smooth and toasty.
White Star by Moët and Chandon
Retail $32. I also had this wine in a strip club, but without any
cheese. It is a delicate wine with aromas of flowers, hazelnuts and
biscuits. It is soft with a fruity finish evocative of peaches.
White Star can be served with cheese-based entrées or as an apértif wine.
Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Premier Cru, Chouilly, NV $24.99 at Grapevine. 12% alcohol. From Epernay, France. Light and fruity Champagne with aromas of citrus fruit, pears, apples, grilled almonds, and toast. It also has yeasty notes from lees ageing. I liked this a lot. We had it for a birthday, but didn't get around to eating the Brillat-Savarin with it.
Philipponnat Champagne Royale Réserve Brut Mareuil-sur-Ay, France. $32.99 at Grapevine. 12% alcohol. It is supposed to be full-bodied with flavors of hazelnut, apple, and minerals. Elegant and graceful finish with a long aftertaste. The producers of this are supposed to be very hands-on and it is supposed to have more yeast flavors. It is very very flavorful. It smells toasty. Aprictos and pears. It smells rotten and floral, maybe like rotten flowers that have been left in the vase too long. The taste is very smooth and creamy, yet also tart. It even tastes floral. I like this a lot. It is very complex and not a very light Champagne. There is some bitterness in the finish, and then there is really heavy floral in the aftertaste.
Philipponnat with Bleu d'Auvergne. This cheese is average in piquancy as far as blue cheese go. It is cow's milk with a lot of spicy blue veining, not too salty. Initially, the flavors are great together and the wine fizzes up with the blue mold. It is a weird sensation. Then I get a mushroomy, rotten flavor. It's not so good together.
Philipponnat with Brillat-Savarin. I like this ok. So far, this is the best real Champagne with a triple crème brie. I still get some rotten flavor in the aftertaste, but this full-bodied Champagne with all the fruit and floral seems better with this cheese than some of the lighter, dryer, more tart Champagne.
Philipponnat with Caerphilly. Dry, mild, white British cheese. You really have to sit and think to get the flavor out of this cheese. These are ok together. This cheese brings out the fruit in the wine. I lose the milk flavor in it, though. The cheese doesn't have great mouth feel -- like chunks of shells and sand splashing around in the sea foam. They don't fight. This cheese is so mild. I think this combo would be good with strawberries.
Philipponnat with Gouda, 2 yr. This cheese has a lot of butterscotch flavor and nuts. It is also very salty. I like these together a lot. They don't fight at all, no rotten taste, no bitterness. The cheese takes the fruit out of the wine, though. I only taste fizz and tart after eating the cheese. The texture of these two is excellent, though -- firm, yet creamy cheese with fine bubbles. It's really not bad. I'd do this again. I like this, but I think I'd do it with a cheaper wine next time.
Philipponnat with Gouda, 5 yr. This cheese tastes like peanutbutter and butterscotch. It is not so hard for a 60 month old cheese. When I eat it, it still coats my palate. It is very strong. I like this pairing better than the 2 month Gouda. It brings out the citrus in the wine. The cheese is also a little bitter and maybe a little acidic, which suits the wine well. I like this. The cheese is stronger than the wine again, but it is good together. I'd serve this on a plate alongside some other cheese to balance it out.
Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV $32.99 at Central Market. We bought an 187 ml bottle for $11 at Central Market to try this out. http://www.piper-heidsieck.com 12% alcohol. This is from Reims. The website is very strange, even with one of the wine bottles dressed up in a corset. It talks about transgression, conspiracy, pleasure, and worship. What could it all mean? When I pour it, the bubbles don't foam up and stay quite like the cheap Cook's we are trying alongside it (to see the difference in a nice wine and a not-so-nice wine). It is very aromatic where the Cook's wasn't at all. It smells like pears and maybe melon. Vanilla. Excellent. The bubbles are very fine, so that it does taste creamy. It has an interesting flavor. I taste a lot of alcohol and I don't see why since it is not high in alcohol. It tastes a little musty and mushroomy. It is a hard taste to describe. It does taste a little rotten, but not in a bad way. It has a little bitterness in the finish, but more of a tangier bitterness. It is mostly Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, aged in chalk cellars. The website says that it is supposed to have a full aroma of spring flowers and citrus -- fresh, lively and vivacious rather than elegant and sleek like some of the dryer Champagnes. It is a "sensual Champagne," which might explain the kinky-looking website.
Piper-Heidsieck Brut with Brillat-Savarin. Horrible! This tastes like vomit together. This wine is great, but I swear, the $5.99 Cooks worked better with this cheese. I cannot get a real Champagne to work with a soft-ripened cheese. I think they both are too creamy together and the bubbles need to be more pronounced to deal with the fat that covers the tongue from the cheese. The mold is disgusting with the wine. It's really not a good pairing. Yuck. The worst thing about this is that both the cheese and the wine have a long finish, so this bad taste keeps on going and going and going.