Champagne 12% Cork $140
Last weekend I popped down to a park in New Farm to have a picnic with a friend. We took with us this wine, smoked salmon, baby caper and cream cheese sandwiches and sat at a table looking out on the river which had burst its banks only four months earlier. The only signs left of the chaos and destruction caused by that event were bright apricot ribbons marking off an area around some exercise equipment. Fortunately we didn’t have any intention of doing chin-ups or the like.
The Champagne opened up tight, revealing little more than lemon citrus and minerality for the first five or so minutes…then the nose went BIG. A veritable pastry shop of peach danish, sweet cheese strudel and cherry fluoride tablets. Quite tawdry really, but very enjoyable nonetheless. A chalky finish added some decorum to proceedings at the end.
As we reached the end of the bottle the rain started to come down again; a reminder, perhaps, of why we had cracked such an expensive wine on more or less a whim. Life is too short not to partake in a little spur of the moment revelry. And it’s too short not to enjoy a bit of tawdry fun.
Winery website- http://www.veuve-clicquot.com/