Champagne Veuve Clicquot Extra Brut Extra Old

champagne

Champagne Veuve Clicquot Extra Brut Extra Old

veuve clicquot extra old

This is a new wine from Champagne Veuve Clicquot, called Extra Brut Extra Old. With a dosage of 3 g/l this is the first release of an extra brut from this house (with the exception of some of the very limited Cave Privée releases). It contains six different vintages of reserve wines (1988-2010), aged for 3 years on the lees. It has a lower pressure than most Champagnes (4.5 bars versus 6 bars) which makes the fizz less assertive. The blend is 47% Pinot Noir and then equal parts Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. RRP is £69 and initial stockists will be Jeroboams, Selfridges and Harrods in the UK.

Champagne Veuve Clicquot Extra Brut Extra Old NV France
Disgorged 06/16. There’s lovely precision to this wine. It’s bright and citrussy, but there’s also some pear and peach richness, a touch of red cherry, a hint of cream and subtle toast. All blends together with lovely finesse. It’s tight and fruit focused, but it also has some savoury maturity in the background. I love the contrasts here, with high acidity and linearity, complemented by the notes of maturity. Really gastronomic and structural, this is quite serious and austere and is quite a contrast to the richness regular Veuve NV, although the family resemblance is there from the reserve wines, which feature quite prominently in the NV. 93/100

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3 Comments on Champagne Veuve Clicquot Extra Brut Extra OldTagged ,
wine journalist and flavour obsessive

3 thoughts on “Champagne Veuve Clicquot Extra Brut Extra Old

  1. The Bubbles in Champagne
    I appreciate that the process of secondary fermentation prior to disgorgement produces the fine stream of bubbles. This contrasts with a fizzy drink where the carbon dioxide is merely pumped in. The question is : why is it different? The gas is the same. Why does it behave differently owing to the process? As a cynical Chemist friend says : the gas doesn’t know how it got there !
    Most books just state this as a fact. I want to know what the technical reason is for the champagne method producing finer bubbles.
    I’d be delighted to have a definitive answer which would convince a chemist.

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