Merry Christmas to everyone out there in internet-land. I just popped up to my room to write this post; I finally found some time between one of the many food dishes we’ve been gorging through the last two days, this time a prosciutto wrapped shrimp in a sambuca sauce. What can I say, my mom makes the shizzz…
We really have been eating and drinking up a storm since I arrived to my hometown yesterday. We enjoyed some champagne as we waited for dinner to cook, then we popped open the bottle of Jean Milan Champagne Brut Carte Blanche Grand Cru that I brought back from Ansley Wine Merchants in the ATL.
I am still learning a lot about wine, and I’m particularly inexperienced with bubbles. So I was quite excited about a Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs (white from whites – 100% chardonnay), and a grower champagne none the less. Grower champagne is champagne where the grape grower also does the vinification, instead of just selling the grapes to a large champagne house for production. If you are interested in reading more about why grower champagne is special, check out this very useful document here. Gary Vaynerchuk did a grower champagne tasting a few hundred episodes ago and discusses some aspects of this topic as well (link here).
Initially served with a simple salad with fried goat cheese rounds, then later served with the lobster ravioli in lump crab cream sauce, the Jean Milan showed very well. It had a fantastic deep yellow color, plenty of bubbles, along with very floral and peach fruit aromatics. It was quite sweet, with strong flavors of apricot with a tone of minerality. Definitely more complex than I am used to, I may be hooked!
We drank some more champagne while we opened presents this morning, this time a Piper-Heidsieck Brut that was very nice as well. I didn’t keep great notes, but it was quite enjoyable and once it warmed up a bit, it really opened up to me and I got some nice burnt wood flavors that was very intriguing.
Also, in addition to the Garmin running GPS and immersion blender I was hoping to receive for Christmas, my parents gave me a bottle of 1997 Heitz Cabernet that they pulled from their cellar. While my parents have a bunch of wine in their perfectly chilly, old exposed brick cellar, I wouldn’t call them serious collectors, and for them to give me one of these bottles is a big deal to me and is much appreciated. I can’t wait to pop it some day on a special occasion.
I hope you are having a great holiday as well, and I especially hope that you are getting to spend time with some family or loved ones. Enjoy the rest of the extended weekend, eat some great food, and try some new wines!
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