Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin's La Grande Dame (1998)

Veuve. Cliquot. Ponsardin.  Three words with a lot of history behind them.  The Champagne house was founded in 1772 by Philippe Cliquot-Muiron in Reims, France.  The Champagne house passed on to Philippe's son, Francois Cliquot.   François married Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin in 1798.  After François passed away in 1805, the Veuve Cliquot company -- which was involved in banking, wool trading and, of course, Champagne -- was in the hands of Madame Cliquot Ponsardin, a "veuve" or "widow" in French.  Hence, Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin.

After taking control of the company, Madame Cliquot Ponsardin focused on winning over the nobility, sending much of the Champagne to royal courts throughout Europe, as far away as Russia.  (Over one quarter of the Champagne production in 1805, the year during which Madame Cliquot Ponsardin took over the house, was sent to Russia.)  The Champagne won the favor of the royal houses, helping to boost the image of Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin as one of the premier Champagnes in the world.  Such royal approval continues today, with Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin holding a royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II in Great Britain. (For those -- like me -- who may not know what is a royal warrant, it is simply a designation that allows companies to advertise they supply goods or services to a royal family.)

Madame Cliquot Ponsardin

Madame Cliquot Ponsardin also made several important contributions to the Champagne making process.  Working with the cellar master, Antoine de Müller, Madame Cliquot Ponsardin invented the riddling rack in 1816.  The rack allows Champagne bottles to be stored upside down (or sur point).  This allows the dead yeast to gather near the cork.  The yeast are then frozen and the plug is removed, which is the process known as dégorgement.  A small amount of wine is added, the wine is re-corked and then aged.  This rack allowed for the transformation of Champagne.  Prior to the invention of riddling and the riddling rack, Champagne was a sweeter wine, with large bubbles and sediment in the bottle.  Based upon her accomplishments and the success of the Champagne house, Madame Cliquot Ponsardin was often referred to as "La Grande Dame" by her peers.

Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin memorialized that title in 1969, when it produced the first La Grande Dame to honor Nicole-Barbe Cliquot Ponsardin.  The 1998 vintage of the wine is made with 64% Pinot Noir (Ay, Verzenay, Verzy, Ambonnay and Bouzy) and 36% Chardonnay (Avize, Oger, Mesnil-sur-Oger). The grapes come from Lot 510 2572, and désgorgement took place between December 2006 and January 2007.

The reviews of La Grande Dame set the bar very high.  For example, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate describes the Champagne as follows: "The 1998 La Grande Dame reveals notable clarity and precision. This focused, poised wine emerges from the glass with well-articulated flowers, pears, smoke, crisp apples and minerals in a medium-bodied style. The wine appears to have enough freshness and sheer depth to support another decade or so of aging."  That is a very impressive description.

It is not only very impressive, but also very accurate.  The pictures do not do justice to this Champagne.  La Grande Dame has a light golden color, and, as the wine sits in the glass, there are continuous streams of perfectly sized beads of bubbles race from the bottom of the glass to the top. As for the aroma, the winemaker describes La Grande Dame as having "typical Chardonnay characteristics" at the fore, "with the arrival of floral and mineral aromas (acacia, ferns, chalk)." After agitating the wine, the winemaker suggests "scents of candied fruit (citrus, apricots, quince) and sweet almond emerge..."  If one keeps agitating the wine, "rare notes such as peaty malt, tobacco and delicate herbs, are gradually unveiled."

I have to admit that I did not get all of those aromas from La Grande Dame, partly due to the fact that I did not want to sit around agitating the wine.  I wanted to get to tasting it.  Before I took a sip, I did get the sense of pears and apples, as well as some floral and a little mineral elements.  As for the flavors of the wine, I found that La Grande Dame was crisp, full of a bright, tart citrus flavors, such as grapefruit, which were accompanied by other fruits, including pears and apples, along with a little spice or mineral on the edges.

As for pairing this wine, once could certainly just enjoy La Grande Dame on its own without any food.  However, I wanted to see if I could pair it with a recipe or a dish.  After a lot of research, I paired this Champagne with Seared Sea Scallops with an Carrot-Orange Gastrique and Pureed Cauliflower.  This pairing originated with a blog post, Brigadoon with Bubbles: A Veuve Cliquot Brunch, where one of the courses was a Seared Diver Scallops with Carrot Orange Gastrique and Parmesan Pancetta Crisp.  I modified the dish by eliminating the crisp and adding the cauliflower puree.  I wanted to turn what was an appetizer into a main course.  Even with these changes, the pairing still worked very well.

I have tried and enjoyed many great wines from around the world.  La Grande Dame (1998) stands as the best Champagne that I have ever had.  If you have a chance to try this wine, do not pass on that opportunity.

ENJOY!

For more about Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin, La Grande Dame, and Madame Cliquot Ponsardin, check out the VCP's website and Wikipedia.

Oysters with Champagne, Anjou Pear and Pink Peppercorns

This recipe is still a work in progress.  It was a last minute recipe that I thought of while staring at a bin full of ice ... and Chincoteague oysters.  I have previously posted recipes for mignonettes, which are generally a "sauce" of vinegar and shallots with additional ingredients.  In the place of vinegar, I used Champagne.  Rather than shallots, I thought of pairing an Anjou pear and a little spice kick with pink peppercorns.

Champagne and pepper pair well with oysters.  Pears are a little more of a stretch.  However, it was still worth the experiment.  As it turns out, the pear gets a little lost in the taste of the oysters. The Champagne and peppercorns work well, providing some tartness and spice to the briny flavor of the oysters. A little experimentation with flavors that worked well, but not as well as some of the mignonettes that I have done in the past.

Even though the recipe was not a complete success, I decided to still post it so that I can go back and work on it a little more.

OYSTERS WITH CHAMPAGNE, ANJOU PEAR

AND PINK PEPPERCORNS

A Chef Bolek Original

Serves 2

Ingredients:
12 oysters, shucked
1/2 Anjou pear, skinned, de-seeded and diced
1/2 cup of Champagne
Reunion Pink Peppercorns

Directions:

1.  Prepare the mignonette.  Add the pear and the champagne to a bowl.  Let the pear sit in the champagne for about ten or fifteen minutes.  

2.  Plate the dish.  Spoon a little of the pear and champagne over the oysters.  Add a couple pink peppercorns.  Serve immediately.

ENJOY!

Oysters with a Peach Champagne Mignonette

Clare and I love fresh oysters. Our favorites are usually Chinoteagues, which come from the Chesapeake Bay. However, we will eat any oysters that we can get our hands on.  A while back, we went to Birch and Barley, a restaurant known -- along with the bar Churchkey on the second floor -- for its craft beers.  However, we saw that there were fresh oysters on the menu.  We ordered the oysters and they were served with a Bloody Mary mignonette.  We went back to Birch and Barley and had the oysters again, only to have them served with a different mignonette. Both mignonettes were very good and it provided different flavors that worked well with the briny flavors of the oysters.

So, I decided to try my own hand at making a mignonette.  This one differs from a traditional mignonette because I did not use any vinegar.  The reason is that I felt the Champagne offered enough of a tart taste that the addition of vinegar would result in an off-taste.  This mignonette is really simple to make.  (Indeed, it takes longer to shuck the oysters than it does to make the recipe).  For this recipe, we used Blue Point oysters, which are available at Whole Foods in Silver Spring, Maryland.

OYSTERS WITH A PEACH CHAMPAGNE MIGNONETTE
A Chef Bolek Original
Serves 2


One dozen oysters, any variety
1/2 peach, peeled and diced finely
1 scallion, diced finely
1/2 to 3/4 cup of Champagne

Make the mignonette first.  Dice the peach finely and make sure to incorporate all of the peach, including the reddish part by the pit, which provides a little color for the mignonette.  Mix in the scallions and the Champagne.  Set aside.

Shuck the oysters.  Rinse each oyster.  Only use an oyster knife, which you can get at a grocery store, Williams & Sonoma or Sur La Table.  Oysters have an opening in the back.  Work the tip of the knife into that opening and begin to turn the knife to each side, working to loosen the top shell.  Once you can get enough of the knife into the oyster, Begin to push down to lift up the shell. Once the top shell is separated, use the knife to make sure the oyster is separated from the top shell.  Use the knife to separate the oyster from the rest of the shell.  There is a muscle underneath the oyster that connects to the bottom part of the shell.  Cut that muscle.  Rinse the oyster if necessary.

Fill a bowl with crushed ice.  Spoon the mignonette onto each oyster.  Serve the oysters over the crushed ice.

 

ENJOY!