Debut of the Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru 2002
Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru 2002
More champagne today. As Liberace said, “Too much of a good thing is wonderful…” (I just saw “Behind the Candelabra” – good movie but didn’t knock my socks off. And that is the end of my film critic career…)
ANYWAY, back to the more important stuff…It’s that time of year when the champagne houses release their vintages and Alice Paillard was in London last week to introduce the Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blanc Grande Cru 2002 and it’s brand new label.
Alice Paillard discussing the 2002
Sitting with Alice and listening her speak so passionately about her family’s champagnes is infectious. Describing the champagnes, she really showed the care and detail that goes into all of them, not just the Blanc de Blanc. They age their wines until they feel they are ready, they want to show the style of the vintages, which helps explain why they are just now releasing the 2002 when most of the other major houses have long ago released theirs.
what does it smell like?
The 2002 Blanc de blanc Grand Cru was a surprise – still very taut and zinging with minerality, it has a floral quality to it. The grapes come the first pressing of 2 Cotes de Blancs Grand Cru – Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and have spent over 10 years on their lees.
Alice said that she and her father, Bruno, differed on this champagne, he thinks it’s pretty and floral and in her opinion, it’s a vertiginous champagne, it has a fine structure -she sees it as a champagne of geometry (I think her father is the romantic in the family and she’s the pragmatist). Drinking it, I could appreciate both their points of view. A very pretty nose, full of floral qualities but totally different on the palate – a champagne that does indeed have structure or better yet, for me, it had many different layers. The more I drank, the more I discovered.
We had a starter of cured salmon, avocado, crab and orange slices with the B de B 2002 which really brought out the orange blossom qualities of the champagne, finishing with a not quite expected chocolate and coffee note. It’s still a young champagne but one that will be around for a long time.
With each Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru, the house commissions and artist to create a label. The 2002 label was created by French artist Jean Paul Agosti. In keeping with the floral character of the champange, this year’s theme is “floral ascent”. The label is bursting with colour and life and I think it does an excellent job of embodying the vibrancy of the Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru 2002.