2020 will be hard year to forget for many tough reasons that no one looks at our blog to be reminded of. Today I am flipping through last year’s wine notebooks and finding the good memories for my annual Champagne retrospective. I hope that you enjoy taking a look at these 10 memorable Champagne’s from 2020 as much as I have enjoyed remembering them!
Read MoreChampagne Liaison Scott Beckerley unearthed a treasure recently from his cellar: a bottle from LeClerc Briant, a beloved producer who sold off their exceptional biodynamic vineyards upon the owner’s passing. Luckily, the vineyards were bought by Roederer, and the superb terroir lives on in their wines.
Read MoreChampagne Billecart-Salmon has been making Champagne for over 200 years, and change comes slowly and incrementally to this great house. This year has been revolutionary for Billecart, as they have introduced not one, but two new cuvées, first the Les Rendezvous #1, and now the Billecart-Salmon "Brut Nature" Champagne. If you are a fan of truly dry Champagne or of pairing your bubbles with food, the Brut Nature is not to be missed!
Read MoreAfter 20 years of buying the Champagne here at K&L, I have to say that I have never seen a year like this one… The good news is, some very good deals have come out of this bizarre situation, and one of the best deals is the small lot of Canard-Duchêne "Charles VII - Grande Cuvée le Victorieux" Brut Champagne that just arrived. The last time we had this, many years ago, we sold it for $49.99, which was a good value. It is now selling for $60 elsewhere, but we were able to grab the last of it and offer it at $39.99.
Read MoreVery few wines in the world are as rare, special, and profound as Krug's Clos du Mesnil. Any wine lover should count themselves lucky just to have tasted it once in their lifetime. I felt blessed indeed to drink a bottle of it in my front yard with Cinnamon during this year's endless California Indian summer. Given my previous experience with this wine and the high price, my expectations were very, very high. I was not disappointed.
Read MoreWhether you’ll be spinning a dreidel, rockin’ around the Christmas tree, lighting the Kwanzaa candles, or simply enjoying Winter Solstice, we have something that can make your celebration special, and, though the times were strange in 2020, the wines were superb.
Read MoreVintage Henriot and white truffles, oh my. Gary found a very special wine to go with his birthday truffle straight from Alba and handmade pasta. Though he’d intended to drink the 2008 Henriot as an aperitif, it paired so divinely with his meal that it became the star of the show.
Read MoreI have received more calls for the Billecart-Salmon "Le Rendez-Vous" Pinot Meunier Extra Brut #1 Champagne than any other bottling this year. Yesterday, our small allocation of 180 bottles finally arrived. I didn’t waste time—I am just as excited as all of the customers who called and emailed—so I chilled one down and drank it last night. Cinnamon and I had the wine both as an aperitif, and with the excellent Taiwanese food of I-Dumpling here in Redwood City. It was a huge success both ways and “a small bottle”—our code at home for “we liked it so much that we drank it too fast.”
Read MoreLast night, I was treated to an early birthday treat as my friend, Henry, who manages the Fish Market restaurant, called and said that he had fresh king crab for us. Once a year, he gets an allocation aired in from Alaska that has not been frozen, and it is an over-the-top delicacy. We paired it with the most elegant of tête de cuvée Champagnes, the 2012 Louis Roederer “Cristal” Brut Champagne, and I don’t know if my real birthday is going to be able to compete.
Read MoreThere’s no doubt that the wines coming out of California, Oregon, and Washington State these days are better than ever. With an influx of new talent and well-honed skills from the veterans, the wines are not just a departure from the “go big or go home” model, they are in fact some of the most pure expressions of the specific and varied terroir that the West Coast has to offer.
Read MoreIt is not every day that one has the chance to drink a Champagne from the most sought-after villages in Champagne, or from the best vintage of a generation, or from vines of nearly 100-years old. When all of that can be found in one wine, it ought to be a special occasion indeed to taste it. The 2008 Philippe Gonet "Cuvée Belemnita" Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne made my Thursday a special occasion—it delivers on all its promise, and then some. It is in contention to be the best bottle of Champagne in stock at K&L—at any price…
Read MoreLast night, Cinnamon and I had the opportunity to compare two of the top cuvées from Louis Brochet, his Extra Noir and Extra Blanc. Both of these are made in small quantities from the oldest vines on the property, and given long aging on the lees, both over five years. It was fascinating to enjoy a pure Chardonnay and a pure Pinot Noir Champagne like these next to each other…
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