Every Friday The no1 Champagne expert in the world will taste new & old Champagne s to give You a tip or two for the weekend. This week Richard Juhlin tasted new champagnes of Belle Epoque. [read the full champagne story]
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
2014 Perrier-Jouët ‘Belle Epoque’
Tasted 2024-01
90 Richard Juhlin rating (Potential 94)
Blend Cuvée Style Brut PN 45 PM 5 CH 50
Tasting Note ‘A shy edition of this famous prestige champagne, but that matters less when the aromatic fingerprint is so unmistakable and sensually beautiful. The powder box, the lily of the valley, the orange blossom and the sour caramels together with a shot of cappuccino are so joyful that I immediately want to open another bottle even though the wine is not mature until 2028 at the earliest.’
2014 Perrier-Jouët ‘Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs’
Tasted 2024-01
92 Richard Juhlin rating (Potential 94)
Blend Blanc de Blancs Style Brut PN 0 PM 0 CH 100
Tasting Note ‘As usual from two of Cramant’s finest locations and oldest vines in Bouron Leroi and Bouron du Midi. Lovely combination of feminine lightness and elegance and a creamy potent concentrated fullness. Very bright and cheerful in every way. Magnificent and seductive scent of white flowers with orange overtones. Orange blossom, magnolia, geranium, acacia and lilac meet lemon and lemongrass, almond cake and honey. The same notes caress the palate in a beautiful crackling firework. Light as a summer breeze and at the same time with a caressing thin layer of soft and creamy lemon dessert.‘
2014 Perrier-Jouët ‘Belle Epoque Rosé’
Tasted 2024-01
93 Richard Juhlin rating (Potential 94)
Blend Rosé Style Brut PN 50 PM 5 CH 45
Tasting Note ‘Chardonnay from Cramant, Avize, pinot noir from Aÿ, Ambonnay and Mailly of which 11% still red wine and a touch of spicy meunier from Dizy. There you have the recipe for Belle Epoque Rosé. In the aroma, sublime fruitiness and dominance of red berries all the way from raspberries via strawberries to sweet ripe strawberries. There is also concentrated orange tone here, both as flower and fruit. Light spicy note meets nougat and silky elegance on the tongue. Elegant as always.’
Perrier-Jouët
★★★★
This domain was established in 1811 by Pierre-Nicholas-Marie Perrier-Jouët. The company became famous under its nickname P-J under the leadership of his son Charles. In 1950 Mumm bought a majority shareholding in the company and the domain became part of the Canadian Seagram Group. The domain was owned for a time by Allied Domecq who, as soon as they took over, alarmingly dug up large portions of the domain’s fine old vines at Cramant. Michel Budin, who led the firm up until the 1980s, was a great admirer of Art Nouveau and opened a Belle Epoque museum in 1990, twenty years after launching the cuvée de prestige of the same name. Nowadays the company is owned by Pernod-Ricard. Jean-Marie Barillere is president at present and Hervé Deschamps recently left his place as chef du cave to Séverine Frereson.
Belle Epoque has become a great success everywhere, and the Americans and Japanese in particular have fallen for the flower-bedecked bottle.
Champagne Club by Richard Juhlin
The domain owns 108 hectares at seven villages, and the other 65 per cent of the grapes are purchased from forty villages. The most important village is Cramant, where the firm owns twenty-nine hectares of the very best slopes. In contrast to other big domains, the heritage has been managed well. The vines are very old and produce fantastic grapes that can dominate an entire cuvée, even if their proportion is small, and the delicate domain-style is very dependent on these Chardonnay grapes. The vintage wine is a toasted classic, and both the Belle Epoque wines are a great source of joy to the romantic wine lover. The 1985 Belle Epoque Rosé was voted as the foremost rosé of all time at the Millennium Tasting. The new Belle Époque Blanc de Blancs is exquisitely mellow and caressing with a colossal syrupy intensity made up of sweet base tones that are at the same time lifted by lemon and juiciness. Sensual and fascinating. A 1998 Belle Epoque magnum was our engagement champagne at Lake Luzern in May 2012.
