Staff-Favorite Launois Special Club Back in Stock with 2013 Vintage
Each time we get a new shipment of Launois it is a cause for a little bit of celebration at K&L—and a lot of employee purchases! This is especially true each time we get a new vintage of their spectacular Special Club bottling, which is always one of the top Champagne cuvées that we have at any price. Last week, our first shipment of the year arrived, and we got our first look at the 2013 Launois “Special Club” Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut. It exceeded our high expectations.
This enigmatic vintage yielded very different results in the various sub regions of Champagne, and radically different outcomes depending on the grape variety. It was a very late harvest—the only October harvest of the 20 years that I have been visiting the region—after a cool and wet growing season. Most producers who rely on Pinot Noir and Meunier did not make vintage wines because of the difficulties with the two varieties in this year. Chardonnay was a different story, especially the Chardonnay from the best sites of the Côte des Blancs, and the wines were strong as a group. Any of you who tried the 2013 Bonville, the 2013 Ayal, or the 2013 “regular” Launois Vintage are already familiar with the quality. The longer hang time was just what the doctor ordered for more complexity, and the cooler season preserved great acidity in the wines.
The Launois Club is made from Chardonnay vines planted in 1951 from a site just behind the family’s house, amusingly named le derrière de la maison. It just so happens that out the back of the house is the mid-slope of the Grand Cru of Mesnil, and one of the best plots in the whole village. These vines not only produce Launois’ most profound wine, they are the source for their massal selection that they propagate themselves for re-plantations. Drinking this, you get a chance to experience the mother vines of Launois. This wine is not fermented in stainless steel or in wood—it is done in the old enamel-lined iron tanks that Bernard Launois has lovingly kept up for decades. I like to describe them as being like Le Creuset on a massive scale. He feels that stainless has a taste, not from the material itself, but from the way fermentations turn inside the tanks. He does not want the wine affected by oak either… so the enamel-lined iron is used.
Cinnamon cooked California halibut with a miso glaze, empress rice, and Mizuna greens for our dinner that we paired with the 2013 Launois Club. I found the wine to be open and generous aromatically, with small white wild flowers and white nectarine fruit. In the mouth I loved the sourdough savor and dried fruit complexity of this rich blanc de blancs. What makes this wine great is the finish—it is one of those special wines that swells up on the back end, with fabulous freshness, chalk, and a repeat of all the bread, flowers, and fruit that I tasted and smelled moments before. It went very well with our food and could go with all manner of fish and seafood, or just as well on its own as an aperitif.
A toast to you!
- Gary Westby