NV Lanson Black Label Brut

A bargain champagne. Pale straw and a persistent bead. Bought it for $42. Better than Australian sparkling wines at this (very cheap) price. Medium level of acidity.

Looked like a slightly old bottle, and perhaps starting to look a bit tired. Must try to hunt down a newer one to compare.

[Update: found a newer bottle, confirming my suspisions. It has a new label design with the red Lanson cross at the top of the main label (see above). A better wine - 94/100]

Score: 93/100

Why you want this wine: It is classic champagne, and can be bought quite cheaply - Enjoy the benefits of Champagne.

The Comparator: Brown Brothers NV sparkling wine. Methode Traditionalle

This wine was assessed straight after drinking the 1996 Pol Roger. At only $20, it has been considered one of the better Australian sparkling wines at that price point. So how does it compare?

The mousse on the wine is not the slightest bit persistent nor lingering, nor is the bead. Shameful for a wine bottled at least 10 years after the Pol Roger. The bouquet is garage like, or a weak acetone. There is also rancid meat. There is little acid, but a flabby, unsophisticated base wine. A real disappointment for a wine that has had some acclamation.

Granted, I tasted this straight after the Pol Roger. Had I had it on its own, I may have been happier with it. But why bother. Wherever they picked the grapes for this wine in Victoria, it wasn't cold enough. I'm not sure why anyone would attempt to make an Australian sparkling white wine anywhere other than Tasmania, or perhaps the very coldest parts of Victoria.

I am happy to view this as a $20 wine, and thus expectations ought be moderated. The problem is that I purchased a few bottles of the woolworths "reserve NV Chardonnay Pinot Noir ML25" cleanskin sparkling wine. I think that that was a better wine, and only $8 a bottle.

I believe that a good sparkling needs under-ripe fruit, and that any sparkling not coming from Tasmania doesn't stand a chance. It is an ultra-cool climate proposition. You add CO2 to an under-ripe base to perfect it.

Score: 88/100

Why you want this wine: You don't. Buy a tasmanian sparkling instead. Go the Bay of Fires, or their second label 'Tigress'. Or go the woolworths cleanskin.

1996 Pol Roger Brut

Pol Roger was Winston Churchill's favourite champagne. As either a tribute to the great man, or a brilliant marketing exercise, Pol Roger have since named their premier wine "the Winston Churchill". Pol Roger is also by appointment to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, and it's served at royal functions. That 2 of the 3 most powerful British people in the last 100 years have preferred Pol Roger is high praise indeed. I'm not sure what the other one (Tony Blair) drinks, but one would assume that he is a Moët & Chandon slut.

In its NV incarnation, Pol Roger prices on par with the fashion label champagnes of Moët & Chandon and Veuve Cliquot. Those also both have proud histories. You can buy a book at Borders called "the Widow Cliquot" (widow in french is Veuve) that will tell you how Mrs Cliqout, widowed in 1805, built one of the worlds largest Champagne houses. She is also credited with the invention of the riddling rack, allowing for the commercialisation of sparkling wine by making the degorgement process more efficient.

Both Moët & Chandon and Veuve Cliquot, probably the two most recognised brands of Champagne, are now owned by a fashion conglomerate, LVMH - Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Huge amounts are spent on marketing, and the quality must suffer as a result. The profits from the above mentioned book probably go to LVMH, as its cover is a near facsimile of the Veuve Cliquot label, and I would imagine that they take those profits. I would be surprised if they subsidised the quality of the wine.

You will be happy to hear that Pol Roger is still owned and run by the descendants of Pol Roger the man.

Which bring us to our present wine, the 1996 Pol Roger Brut, in all its historical glory. The 1996 vintage is regarded as one of the best in Champagne in the last 100 years, perhaps the best ever. At this stage in its development the wine has a light to medium golden hue. A strong line of acid runs through the wine, and granny-smith apples predominate on the palate. A rich and smoothly complex wine, it is consolidating nicely. It has a bouquet of rare book, or pleasant old house (or perhaps even wads of paper-based [not polymer] currency). I think I may even have smelt a tinge of illicit hemp - sheer brilliance.

Score: 96/100

Why you want this wine: Because it's good, no, great. And it isn't a fashion statement.