Vintus

L’Atelier do Joël Robuchon and Joël Robuchon Restaurant in the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas made the Wine Enthusiast’s top 100 list of the Best Wine Restaurants. In the restaurant’s mini profile Executive Chef Claude Le Tohic suggests a perfect pairing, “try the L’Oeuf de Poule – a crispy soft boiled egg with smoked salmon caviar – at Joël Robuchon Restaurant with Bruno Paillard’s Brut Première Cuvée Champagne.”

Joël Robuchon (left) and Executive Chef Claude Le Tohic (right)

The Quarterly Review of Wines had their 29th Annual Best of The Best: Champagne Tasting. The QRW tasting team put together lists of their favorite non-vintage, vintage, rosé non-vintage, and rosé vintage Champagnes. Bruno Paillard’s Brut Première Cuvée was listed 3rd out of 6 top Champagnes!

The Wine Advocate just released their Champagne ratings for the year – click on the link below to read the exceptional Bruno Paillard reviews. It’s an impressive showing for BP, particularly for the Brut Premiere Cuvee, which was described as “exceptionally polished and refined” and received 92 points, its highest-ever WA rating. In his overview of the house, Champagne critic Antonio Galloni writes: “Bruno Paillard’s Champagnes stand out for their elegance and total finesse. Although a relatively new house by Champagne’s standards, Paillard’s wines have a timeless classicism about them that is highly appealing.”

Bruno Paillard WA Reviews

The December 2012 issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine showcases their top Champagnes of the year. Featured is Bruno Paillard’s Blanc de Blancs Réserve Privée, Brut Rosé Première Cuvée, 2002 Brut Assemblage, and Brut Première Cuvée, all scoring 90 points or higher. You can read the short Paillard profile and reviews below.

The December/January issue of the Wine Spectator published a great article titled “Debating Disgorgement Dates”. The article explains the importance of disgorgement dates and how it is a fundamental part of the Champagne method. Bruno Paillard has been publishing this information on his bottles for many years, and in fact pioneered this practice in Champagne. He is quoted: “The motivation was to try and explain to consumers that Champagne is, or can be, a great wine, and as such it has its life and its specific kind of maturation, including after disgorgement. [We want] to encourage people to discover the wonderful extra complexity which post-disgorgement maturation can offer, and the first step is to know when the disgorgement actually happened.” Click below to read more.

ENOBytes.com published an article explaining the importance disgorgement dates and the effect of post disgorgement maturation, something Bruno Paillard has published on Champagne bottles since 1985. An excerpt from the article is below along with a nice visual of post degorgement that creates a “map of the ageing”. Click the image to read the full piece.

“Probably the most important takeaway during this trip was when I sat down with Bruno to conduct an experiment.” “I want you to taste the difference…,” exclaimed Bruno, as he pulled out four identical base wines of the same year that had undergone different post-disgorgement ageing.  “Many people think champagne does not age simply because that has been the dominant message for decades. But when a consumer gets a chance to discover the effects of post-disgorgement maturation, it changes their opinions.” The evolution of post-disgorgement maturation is what Bruno calls ‘life after dégorgement’ where the wine passes through five or six ‘lives.’ Each life builds upon its last as the wine takes on different personalities in the bottle. The younger the disgorgement, the fruiter—the older the disgorgement, the toastier it gets.”

“According to the conditions of conservation, this maturity – fruit-floral-spice-toast-candied-roasted can be short or long. It will still take a minimum of four to five years after disgorging to obtain the first spiced notes and even decades to attain full maturity. Only the greatest champagnes can offer this path of evolution that real aficionados look for, as they have pleasure in keeping these wines in their cellar among other grands crus.” – Bruno Paillard

The current issue of Sommelier Journal has a major 5-page feature on the Bruno Paillard Champagne house.  It’s a great profile on the winery that re-iterates the style of Bruno’s Champagnes, the amazing quality of his vineyards, and his vision especially for what a Brut Non-Vintage (or Multi-Vintage) should possess in terms of quality and ageability.

Here is an excerpt:

“Paillard’s wines are distinguished  by their dryness and their elegance. For him, the assemblage is what defines Champagne, as opposed to the trendy single-vineyard and grower bottlings. He does his initial blending only with the nose; there is no tasting until the final stages. Paillard controls the dosage very carefully, having reduced sugar levels to 6 grams per liter for the But and Rose and 5 grams for the Blanc de Blancs. ‘A high dosage will dampen the acidity of the wine, reducing its aging potential,’ he finds.”