Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Figs, quince, toast, hazelnuts, walnuts and white chocolate on the nose. It’s medium-bodied, focused and full of energy, with persistent layers of dried fruit and nuts, accompanied by very fine bubbles. Long. Dry and mineral on the finish. Chardonnay and pinot noir.
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Wine Spectator
This mouthwatering version shows the creamy, lightly mouth-coating texture, providing a fine, cashmere-like wrap around the steely spine of acidity. Bright and deftly knit, offering a lovely range of ripe white cherry and apricot fruit, fleur de sel, brioche and crystallized honey flavors. Briny mineral and oyster shell notes linger on the finish. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Disgorged April 2019. Drink now through 2033.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Disgorged in April 2019 with three grams per liter dosage, Paillard's 2008 Extra-Brut N.P.U. Nec Plus Ultra unwinds in the glass with notes of pear and citrus mingled with hazelnut, toasted bread, dried fruits and warm biscuits. Medium to full-bodied, taut and chiseled, it's concentrated and complex, its tightly wound mid-palate complemented by a pearly mousse and underpinned by chalky grip. While it's introverted today, this is a classic in the making that will show brilliantly with more age on cork, even if it will always remain a comparatively lean, acid-driven marathon runner of a Champagne. Best after 2025. Rating: 94+
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Wine & Spirits
This top selection from grand-cru parcels fermented in oak barriques, where it aged for 10 months. That oak influence comes across as a dustiness when the wine is first poured, a character that’s gone the next day, when the wine tastes of fresh apples and pears. It’s tightly structured, tense and powerful, the cool vintage lending the wine a deep, meaty savor. Built to age, this will be more forthcoming with its pleasures in five years.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Associated with luxury, celebration, and romance, the region, Champagne, is home to the world’s most prized sparkling wine. In order to bear the label, ‘Champagne’, a sparkling wine must originate from this northeastern region of France—called Champagne—and adhere to strict quality standards. Made up of the three towns Reims, Épernay, and Aÿ, it was here that the traditional method of sparkling wine production was both invented and perfected, birthing a winemaking technique as well as a flavor profile that is now emulated worldwide.
Well-drained, limestone and chalky soil defines much of the region, which lend a mineral component to its wines. Champagne’s cold, continental climate promotes ample acidity in its grapes but weather differences from year to year can create significant variation between vintages. While vintage Champagnes are produced in exceptional years, non-vintage cuvées are produced annually from a blend of several years in order to produce Champagnes that maintain a consistent house style.
With nearly negligible exceptions, . These can be blended together or bottled as individual varietal Champagnes, depending on the final style of wine desired. Chardonnay, the only white variety, contributes freshness, elegance, lively acidity and notes of citrus, orchard fruit and white flowers. Pinot Noir and its relative Pinot Meunier, provide the backbone to many blends, adding structure, body and supple red fruit flavors. Wines with a large proportion of Pinot Meunier will be ready to drink earlier, while Pinot Noir contributes to longevity. Whether it is white or rosé, most Champagne is made from a blend of red and white grapes—and uniquely, rosé is often produce by blending together red and white wine. A Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay will be labeled as ‘blanc de blancs,’ while ones comprised of only red grapes are called ‘blanc de noirs.’