SixAtmospheres #4

Champagne Vintage 2021 | Talking Franciacorta with Mosnel

1. Base Wines and Blends - the Lowdown on Champagne Vintage 2021

I may be alone in this, but I find the idea of a critic visiting Champagne and passing judgement on quality of the year based on a few base wines to be a little fanciful. It’s not like tasting en primeur: the blends may not have been finalised and the wines you are shown are, understandably, selected (usually from a suspiciously-high quotient of Grand Crus). Sometimes, you get to see an unfiltered picture (as I was as Philipponnat, above). But not often.

It is, though, an opportunity to bend the ears of the very best and ask them what they thought. With some luck, and persistence, a useful picture can emerge. It needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, though.

Here are my impressions from base wine tastings and interviews with thirteen Champagne chef des caves and heads of houses.

HEADLINES

• Frost hit early in the season, with especially bad losses in the Aube (often over 50%) and an average of 30% losses across the region

• Disease problems - mostly downy mildew - were dramatic in the early part of the summer, causing damage to foliage (especially for Meunier in the Marne valley), and infecting grapes that then shrivelled. Rain hampered vineyard work and spraying programmes, allowing the mildou to run riot, eventually playing itself out in August. This type of disease pattern, though, is better for grape quality than that seen in 2017, which saw terrible problems with rot at harvest time. The back end of 2021 was easier going; the damage was done earlier, and what fruit there was at harvest time was generally clean (although powdery mildew risk followed the downy mildew battle).

• Harvest was late, running into the end of September, with high acidities (and high malic acid levels).

• Many producers report yields of 7 to 8 tonnes per hectare - well below average. This drop is partly due to frost and party due to downy mildew. Meunier was as low as 1.5 tonnes per hectare in the Marne (or even completely wiped out on occasion). As per usual Chardonnay in the Côte des Blancs fared better.

• The effect of this is that many producers are being forced to put wines that would ordinarily go into vintage, or even prestige, wines, into their NVs to safeguard volumes! Florent Nys at Billecart-Salmon, for example, believes 2021 is his best-ever NV blend. It could be a year to look out for as a base year for some top, age-worthy NVs when they are released.

• Added to this is the fact that reserve wine usage in NVs is generally up, with most houses around 40% or higher. Another boost for NVs!

• There will be few vintages, on volume grounds, but there may be small releases of vintage blanc de blancs. Many chefs de caves I spoke to have wines in tank that they are very pleased, even excited about - but the pressure to either put these down to reserve, or to use them in their NVs, tends to win out.

The wines I were shown were, broadly speaking, good. Sometimes they were really quite stylish, especially from the Grands Crus of the Côte des Blancs and the Southern side of the Montagne. There was enthusiasm, too, around Verzy and Verzenay. It does seem like a year for the Grand Crus to show us exactly why they are what they are.

The truth is that the lack of available Meunier, very low yields in the Aube and a generally tight, high-acid profile means that 2021 will prove a stylistic side-step from 2018, 2019 and 2020. Julie Cavil at Krug called it a ‘lime’ year, not a ‘lemon’ one, a year that had plenty of energy but needed ‘structure’ from reserves. It felt, to me, that this slightly cooler expression was clearer in Pinot Noir than it was in Chardonnay.

Despite the headlines generated by the apocalyptic weather, it doesn’t look like another 2017, when a flood of sub-par grapes meant musty wine in tank. Then, the decision faced by winemakers was essentially volume vs. quality. There was more sorting needed in 2021 than the previous three years, but in general the problem is that the grapes just weren’t there.

With a series of good, complementary reserve wines in tank from more openly-styled vintages, however, I would expect some excellent non-vintage, multi-vintage and even multi-vintage prestige wines to eventually emerge. I will be looking out for them.

The picture with smaller producers will be patchier, heavily dependent on precise location. Those that produce non/multi vintages may have an exciting palate to play with.

The problem may be finding them.

CLICK HERE TO READ MY NOTES ON BASE WINES (PLUS SOME COMPLETED BLENDS AND RESERVES)

2. Talking Franciacorta with Mosnel

Outside Champagne, Franciacorta, nestled beneath Lago d’Iseo in Italy’s Lombardia region, is probably the the world’s most tightly-formalised, established sparking wine region.

“We all agree that, unlike some other regions of Italy, the Consorzio Franciacorta is doing a really good job at the moment,” explains Allesandra Zambonin of agency Studio Cru, working to establish some top Italian Traditional Method producers abroad. “In other regions, there is a lot of fighting…but here we are all working together!”. What they have been working together for, principally, is a domestic success story: Italians themselves take care of around 90% of total production, leaving curious bubbleheads abroad a little short of variety on our shelves. With some of the highest percentage of organic production anywhere in Italy and a thirty captive audience, what’s there to fight over?

The Franciacorta Style

Chardonnay, the Pinots and the Traditional Method create an unusually-transferrable language for understanding the interaction between place and flavour. You can barely bite into a Chardonnay grape in England in mid August, yet in Lombarida thoughts are turning to harvest.

Franciacorta pulls victory out of the jaws of early ripening and hotter and hotter harvests. The Lombardi are not afraid of ripe grapes, though. It is no accident that Chardonnay is king here - it just doesn’t mind getting pushed on ripeness and alcohol levels quite so much. When the stars align, Franciacorta carries off a winning combination of fragrant, outgoing Chardonnay fruit, all super-ripe lemons (often with a hazelnut-like richness and plenty of pasticceria flavours), cut with just enough acidity and elegance to feel like a true sparkling wine. The Pinots are, on the whole, the back-up band.

Mosnel

Mosnel farms 42 Hectares, all organically, at around 250m above sea level in the village of Camignone in the centre of the region. Two things struck me as we tasted along with Lucia Barzanò, part of the fifth generation in charge of the estate. Firstly, the fruit, which tended to be fairly restrained by Franciacorta standards. “Being outside the Morainic amphitheatre means we have more sub-alpine influence here”, she explained. I would say that these are not pushed for ripeness as much as some - in fact they show a slightly cooler, earlier-picked profile with refined shapes bolstered by careful oaking. The rosés both impressed.

Second - just how delicious the forthcoming 2007 Riserva release is. Sometimes the top of a portfolio can be a bit over-played in Franciacorta, but here the fruit is perfectly-pitched to take on plenty of oak and twelve years on lees. It’s a big sparkling wine, but it’s a balanced one.

Brut - 89

60% Chardonnay 30% Pinot Bianco 10% Pinot Nero

2018 base. 30 months on lees. Half of total production.

Some green melon fruit with red apple freshness and lime. Something minty. Fragranced florals, with some peachy ripeness and a little citrus oil grip on the finish. Quite a refined, controlled mousse here. Feels balanced and complete.

Brut Nature - 88

2017 base. 70% Chardonnay 20% Pinot Bianco 10% Pinot Nero

This is feeling very elegant, with another refined mousse and a spot more delicacy than the 2018, even if the fruit expression feels a little muted. Green apple and herbs, some hard crunchy stone fruit and white florals with some fresh almond. 88

Pas Dosé - 89

60% Chardonnay 30% Pinot Bianco 10% Pinot Nero

36 months on lees. 2016 base

Lovely creamy, hazelnut nose that shows more autolytic richness than the brut. Detailed florals and some pineapple/stone fruit cut with some herbs and pith. Complex and gastronomic, this is nicely balanced without dosage.

Brut Rosé - 89

40% Pinot Nero 40% Chardonnay 20% Pinot Bianco

2018 base, with 24 months ageing. 

Maceration in the press. A risky strategy, but here it is done with some care and delicacy. Pink grapefruit and fragrant raspberry with some subtle leafiness, finishing with some bitter almond and fruity succulence.

PaRosé 2016 - 90

66% Pinot Nero, 34% Chardonnay

Pristine, fragrant fruitiness of raspberry and orange citrus with some charming florals. Quite dense up front, showing some spice and pith before a vein of autolytic richness comes through to ride out the finish. Quite involved and dramatic.

Satèn 2017 - 89

100% Chardonnay. 40% oak fermentation.

Lovely praline richness with lemon curd and candied peel. It has that gentle Satèn mousse, delicate and focused. Fine citrus syrup, apricot kernel and grapefruit oil bitters on the palate. A vein of green fruit here too. A touch of SO2 here means this is in need of a little more post-disgorgement settling. Potentially quite stylish.

E.B.B. 2016 - 91

100% Chardonnay. 7000 bottles made. 42 months on lees. A vineyard selection, 100% oak fermented.

A beautiful clarity of yellow and tropical fruits with some limey focus and a slightly green tinge - green almonds, herbs. You don’t feel a weight of oak here at all. Quite a bright white pepper and fresh hazelnut lift with some fresh spiciness and textural interest. More going on here than in the Satèn, I found this quite beguiling.

Riserva 2007 - 93

60% Chardonnay 30% Pinot Bianco 10% Pinot Nero

12 years on lees. 100% oak fermentation, no dosage. Autumn 2022 release.

This is quite a big step up. Involved and layered, with a real sense of development from set, woody honey, caramelised apple and savoury hints from turmeric spice and dried citrus. The fruit is more orange/yellow than green here. The freshness is there, though, of citrus marmalade, wrapped in buttery pastry and finishing with sweet bitter almond and praline. It’s a big sparkling wine, with plenty of oak interest, but the fruit is fully-rendered, ripe and beautifully shaped - and it’s up to the task. Integrated and really quite impressive.