Joseph Perrier

[tomstevenson]

Good prices Roberto, but they are not 90-point wines, let alone 91 points. The A. Robert 1996 gets 88 points in my next edition, but you would be charginging much more for a vintage. Christ, I hate talking points. I don't want to go this route! I'm just trying to equate quality. A number of (very nice) US based reviews of my books have qualified their praise by stating that I'm biased towards Champagne because I don't give any US wines top scores, but that is simply because in general they do not compare. What I'm saying with these specific wines (and Le Reve mentioned in another thread) is that they do compare. They compare with some of the best that Champagne has to offer. I doubt that you would be able to get two pallets of Knudsen Vineyard, but it is a shame that sparkling wine aficionados in the US cannot be more supportive of the truly great sparkling wines produced in their own country. In terms of pure (sparkling wine) potential, I think that New Zealand and Tasmania are intrinsically superior to either California or Oregon, yet Roeder Estate, Domaine Carneros (Le Reve only) and Argyle consistently outperform most of the fizz coming from those two areas and are the equivalent of Pire, which is currently the greatest ANZ has to offer. Play the anthem and raise the Stars & Stripes and everyone in the US seems so patriotic, but after the music has stopped and the flag has been rfolled up, out comes the French Champagne! I'm not nocking Champagne. I love the stuff, but you haver home grown products that are doing better than they really should. I know you're proud of that Roberto, but somehow you have to get your best fizz customers equally enthused. 'Scuse any typos; in a rush and no time time to edit.
Tom