The yearly La Tache dinner at MrM’s house started with a beautiful bottle of:
R & L LEGRAS ‘CUVÉE SAINT VONCENT’ 1996 | Chouilly | Champagne | Frankrike | R & L Legras | 100CH | Swedish importer: Scandinavian Wine & Food KB | SBnr 84003 749 sek
TASTING NOTE ‘In certain years the grapes from the very oldest vines in the village are separated for this cuvée de prestige. Tremendously elegant and sophisticated, with superb creaminess and smooth acidity. Feminine and graceful. Can still be stored for a long time. A personal style with nuttiness and dry, intense, mineral-impelled tones. One of the absolut best Champagnes from 1996!’ RJpoints95(97)
RJ ON R.&L. LEGRAS Domain status was obtained in 1973. This impeccably run firm now owns twenty-one hectares of Chouilly’s finest vineyards. Monsieur Barbier, who is a big man in more ways than one, runs together with his son Julien his model company with a successful mixture of modern and traditional vinification methods. Even though the wines go through malolactic fermentation, they retain a very high degree of life-giving acidity for decades. Legras is the house Champagne at many of France’s three-star restaurants, and this must be counted among the top producers in the whole of Champagne. In the vintage from 2000 I am for once unable to distinguish any difference in quality between the vintage and prestige Champagnes. The 2002 is fantastically enjoyable right from the start. However it is significantly better to keep ones impulses under control and to wait for the profound loveliness that greying temples will give this strong personality.
