I've always been a bit sceptical about attaching too much importance to the scores given to wines in tastings by 'a panel of experts'.
For one thing it is never true to think that any wine not mentioned can’t be any good. The judges can only taste so many wines and usually they only taste the samples submitted to them. For every wine given a score there are a hundred which don’t even get tasted.
Second and much more important, the scores given don’t guarantee that you will like the wine in question. We all have different tastes and the only opinion that really counts is yours and you're certainly not obliged to agree with a wine guru.
Having said that, the results of these tastings make interesting reading and certainly serve as a point of reference, especially when they tend to confirm one’s own opinion – yes I have to admit that I am biased and perhaps to be honest I am being a bit smug, so do feel free to bear this in mind as you read the following.
When it comes to non-vintage champagne I have always thought that the best quality and the most interesting champagnes are not to be found amongst the well-known brands that you can buy just about everywhere, but amongst the small independent growers.
I was in Champagne last week and read a copy of a magazine called Que Choisir, rather like Which? in this country. They had tasted and ranked 60 champagnes and had sorted them into four categories.
They found that:
11 were Exceptional champagnes
15 were Good quality
24 were Honest with no unpleasant surprises
10 had No redeeming features
In the top 11 were big names such as Laurent Perrier Brut, Perrier-Jouët and Gosset, six small-grower champagnes and a couple of middle-sized champagne houses.
The ‘Good Quality’ champagnes included Roederer, Pol Roger and Moët & Chandon, the company I used to work for and which, I think, makes sound quality champagne.
Moving down to the ‘Honest with no unpleasant surprises’ category, which is like being damned with faint praise, we find, amongst others:
Veuve Clicquot
Mumm
Piper Heidsieck
Taittinger and
De Castellane
Amongst the 10 least favoured champagnes were:
Mercier
Duval-Leroy and
Lanson Black Label
What pleased me most about this particular ranking was that both the No.1 and No.2= choice were from a small grower whose champagnes I import: Franck Bonville. His Prestige Grand Cru was No.1 and his Sélection Grand Cru was No.2
These are superb champagnes. Both are Blanc de Blancs (100% Chardonnay) and both are Grand Cru, in fact ALL the Bonville vineyards and their champagnes are Grand Cru, which is remarkable in itself.
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