Ages and Ages

A housewarming is a good reason to open a bottle of Champers.  The Prince had moved into new digs, and mighty fine they are too.  A birthday is another time to hear the cork go ‘pop’.  And we had two, with The Prince and SWMBO celebrating another year starting.  And a new job makes a bottle of bubbles mandatory, with the A-Prentice doing new and better things.  A get-together also provides a reason for Champagne.  And we hadn’t got together properly for ages and ages – well a couple of months anyway.

The bottle of 1989 Veuve Clicquot ‘Trilennium Reserved’ Champagne made its appearance.  This had been kept in the depths of The Prince’s cellar for – ages and ages – since at least 1999.  It was a special cuvee to mark three centuries for Veuve Clicquot, and released to celebrate the clock ticking over to a new millennium.  About two-thirds Pinot Noir and one-third Chardonnay with a very low dosage.  Plenty of time on lees to make it complex, no doubt.

The Prince had his concerns about the condition it could be in.  And sure enough, the deep golden colour and tightly compressed cork added to the worry.  On bouquet, quite tight and dense, brooding and unforthcoming, but gradually unveiling complex secondary and tertiary detail of nuts, toast, caramel and degraded yeast.  A heavy heart, showing Pinot Noir.  The palate the same, and very dry, almost firm, but no decrepit characters.  The more time it had in the glass, the more the acidity showed freshness to the mouthfeel and the greater the aged complexity.  This had a taste of cognac too, something I see rarely nowadays in Champagne, but certainly in days gone by.  And the flavours lingered, for ages and ages.