Champagne

[rsaponjic]

I just purchased a case a Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (Yellow Label), to hand out bottles to our neighbors for the Holidays. Was this a good choice- or will they be offended - their kind of stuffy!

[Innkeeper]

Won't you be, will you be my neighbor?

[winoweenie]

Hi rsponjic and welcome to the board. To answer your question without knowing where you`re located. Yes and No. Yes if you reside on " Marthas` Vineyard. No fer derned near enny-wheers else. Happy Holidays. winoweenie

[mrdutton]

Tell me where you live. I'll move and then I can be your neighbor and then you can give me a bottle or two.....

Or maybe you can bring a case or two over to the house and we can PARTY!!

[hotwine]

One of our board members, Roberto of WineExpo in CA, hates the big Champagne houses, and advises all who will listen to buy the products of the smaller growers. But rest assured, you have excellent taste, and the recipients will be delighted by your generous gifts. That's the Champagne of choice in our home.

[Bucko]

You can buy Pol Roger Brut for not much more, and it is much better IMHO.

Bucko

[Botafogo]

Hotwine, have you been drinking Veuve (with an appropriate reference sample of, say Bollinger or Pol Roger) long enough to observe the MASSIVE change in style brought about by the pilfering of the inventory and resultant decrease in age of the Orange Lable brought about by its being subsumed into LMVH???

EVERY major reviewer has completely changed its tasting notes, typically noting "citrusy, refreshing" notes instead of the rich toasty yeast autoliysis style of the real Veuve. Several have been stunned to find that the bottle picked in blind tastings as "obviously the Spanish Cava ringer" was the VC.

We have done "Pepsi Challenge" style tastings with hundreds of consumers and an overwhelming majority preferred Albert Le Brun, Bollinger and, especially, Henri Billiot to the VC and they are ALL less expensive.

If the alternative is Moet, by all means take the Veuve, if you have other choices use them.

Friends don't let friends drink Korbel, Roberto

[Botafogo]

PS: it is the evil Liquor Lords who have corrupted the integrity of the "Grande Marques" that I hate, the actual victims I have only pity for (they have to answer to the ghosts of their relatives of yore rattling around in the cellars screaming "what have you DONE?")

Roberto

[hotwine]

I prefer Taittinger, personally. But the Lovely Wife likes Clicquot, so that's what we usually drink. (Just bought some more today, at $24.99 and $27.99, respectively.) Yes, I've been drinking it long enough to notice the difference, especially in the last couple of years; but we have it so seldom, and in such small quantities, that it hasn't bothered us.
We have a distribution problem in this area, as I've mentioned before. The distributors bring in the stuff from the big houses, and it's very rare that a small grower's product will show up at retail. So we take what we can get, and bitch about it, for all the good that does.

[Botafogo]

Even so, you should be able to get Bollinger and probably Pol Roger and maybe even Gosset.

Cheers, Roberto

[hotwine]

Pol Roger is usually available locally, but Bollinger is only occasionally present on the shelves. And I've never encountered Gosset.
The PR is certainly a nice wine, but it's been several years since we've tried it. I'll look for it, and give it another try. Thanks, Roberto.
Gil