Before going to one of my best friend’s bridal shower the past weekend, I was thinking, maybe it’s a cute little touch if I select few bottles of wine for the dinner.  No parties should start without a great bottle of Champagne.  I picked up one of my favorite Champ maker: Cédric Bouchard, and took it to Chez Patrick.  I hope the night was a special night for the bride-to-be with memories that will last for a long time.  Our night was a little too “private” to share, but here, I will share with you the Champ we had.

I met Cedric at his vineyard 2 years ago, we got to know him,  tasted his earlier vintages and it was remarkably memorable. Cédric Bouchard is the smallest wine property of champagne. Bouchard farms just under three hectares of vineyards.  There are two ranges; the Inflorescence wines are made from vineyards owned by Bouchard’s father, while the Roses de Jeanne wines are made from vineyards Bouchard owns himself.

Cédric comes from a Champagne family – his father is an old school grower, but Cédric does things differently.  All of his wines are single vineyard, single vintage wines, and he doesn’t not using any wood for his champagnes, preferring to ferment all of his wines in stainless or enameled steel.  This sensibility corresponds to the rest of the winemaking, which seeks to present the wines in the clearest possible manner: no chaptalization, no fining, no filtering, no cold-stabilization and no dosage. The wines go through a natural malolactic and are racked only once, just before bottling. These are brilliant wines from minuscule yields, a non-­‐interventionist approach made by this talented, young (and very handsome!!) perfectionist. This 2009 was lovely and with a WA score of 93+ byAntonio Galloni this bottle  really is a great value.  Just like what Antonio said, “Readers should do whatever they can to experience these magnificent wines.”!