| Score: |
93 JG.
"Cécile Grongnet’s Carpe Diem bottling is a blend of seventy percent chardonnay and fifteen percent each of pinot noir and pinot meunier, with the vins clairs for this bottling spending nine months in cask prior to assemblage and then five and a half years aging on its fine lees (under cork, rather than crown cap). It was finished off with a dosage of four grams per liter and is base year 2008, so this is the same bottling I reported on last spring. The bouquet is now wide open and really singing, offering up scents of apple, hazelnut, chalky minerality, a touch of fleur de sel and a topnote of lime blossoms. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and à pointe, with great focus and balance, very elegant mousse and a long, complex and utterly seamless finish. Lovely Extra Brut and a superb value." John Gilman, View From the Cellar, May/Jun 2016, Issue #63 |