Guy Larmandier Cuvée Signé François 2009
- Rich, complex
- Champagne
This vintage champers, now in its 12th year, is still characterised by freshness and soft nuance. It sits somewhere between cream and silk on the palate, with the superfine bubbles giving it a regal presence without being imposing. It’s almost indescribably complex. There’s lemons, apples and pears, with buttercups and bittersweet acacia honey, the delicate aroma of lilies, and an underscoring of cool minerality and a gentle salinity that sings of the terroir.
Profile
Where other wines show their imperial bearing with broad-shouldered grandeur, this is svelte and clean in spite of the full-flavoured richness. The pale-gold tinge in the glass is all the bling it needs, and the rest is pure flavour. What’s more, it’s unbelievable value for a wine of this calibre. It’s a family-run winery (Cuvée Signé François is named after their son) who makes Champagne with zeal, pride and inimitable craft. For the price, you not only get a world-class Champagne, you get a story to tell, and the unique evening to share.
It’s cool, we get it, you want to know absolutely everything about this wine. Well here you go, go nuts.
Specs
- Region
- Champagne
- Vintage
- 2009
- Cellaring
- 2028
- Preservatives
- Sulphites
- Alcohol by Vol.
- 12.0%
- Closure
- Crown
- Bottle Vol
- 750mL
- Blend Info
- 100% Chardonnay
- Serving Temp.
- 8°C
Region
Champagne
Champagne is not generic sparkling wine, it's a region. There I said it. Get it right people. The reason the French get their lingerie in a twizzle when we call Trilogy 'Champoyne' is the history, the money and the angst that have all gone into making Champagne what it is today: a bureaucratic, strictly controlled, marketing-driven behemoth, that still manages to pump out some of the world's finest and most consistent wines. Adding bubbles to wine was a masterstroke of genius, and makes wine from marginal regions not only palatable, but unique and eminently desirable. But it's the way the grapes are grown, the land they're grown in, and the way the bubbles are generated that makes traditional method sparkling (which all Champagne is) special. There will always be alternatives, but none have the history and marketing power of the luxury Champagne powerhouses. You're not buying wine; you're buying a brand name. And that's ok.