But to take advantage of the wealth of small quality growers in Champagne combined with my direct to consumer model, it's really a treat to offer $40-$60 Champagnes that should be priced at $85-$115 a bottle. It's the same thing when you talk to sommeliers at restaurants they say the value is better at a higher price point because you save more money. Buying $40-$60 Champagne at Fass Selections is a can't miss proposition. Some of you have tasted the 2008 Blanc de Blanc and the NV Brut Noir from the great estate of Yann Alexandre in Courmas in the Montagne de Reims and as a result of the tremendous feedback from happy clients and the last of stock stash at the estate I offered the 2008 Blanc de Blancs in July. It was our most successful Champagne offer of the year. Now I have the best wine Yann Alexandre makes, the 2005 Extra Brut 1er Cru, which can be had for as little as $49.99 on a 3-pack. Again, it is hard to impossible to find top quality vintage grower Champagne for under $60 and most likely $75. What you find via 3 tiers are generally price point Champagnes which are average at best. To say this is a value is an understatement. Just based on price and what it is it's a value. Then you taste it and it is an extraordinary bottle of Champagne and becomes more of a value. Mainly Chardonnay with 1/3rd Pinot Noir with a touch of Pinot Meunièr this is dry as the Extra Brut moniker suggests but has extraordinary fruit and delicacy. Oh is this delicate. My favorite thing about Champagne is how delicate it is and this should be the poster child. Combined with the insane freshness and huge fruit and yeasty Chardonnay minerality it's almost too much depth for a wine. The nose for me is one of my favorite of all the stuff I've brought in. It has all the yeasty complexity one wants but an added touch of humidity and urgency as if the aromas were in a pressure cooker and then released. It is stanky yeasty Chardonnay goodness. The palate is harmonious and elegant as only fine vintage Champagne can be. Super pure and so fresh. The complexity is completely over the top. Salty, mineral and so delicate with a very fine mousse. I know many of you have not tasted my $50-$60 Champagnes but I guarantee they will blow you away.
In such a great place now but will continue to evolve and add complexity for 10-15 years. But above all, this is insanely delicious and is one of the best values in high end Champagne that I bring in direct. A customer just visited Yann Alexandre and they only had room for one bottle. This was it. If you've had the 08 Blanc de Blancs then you will love this. It has superb structure from the Pinot Meunièr. So elegant, such precision from the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Champagne to me is still vastly underpriced. It is where Burgundy was maybe 20 years ago. There are established names that command high tarrif but always deliver (Krug, Dom Perignon, Selosse) and the new kids starting to command higher prices and are establishing themselves as superstars (Bereche, Brochet, Laval, Prevost, Beaufort, Suenen) but also a whole host that are in the category of relatively undiscovered. Like from me, Yann Alexandre, Caillez-Lamaire, Brice and Perseval-Farge which are priced very fairly now but only will go up. What happened in Burgundy was the super high prices commanded by the top guys had a trickle down effect and now many of the producers I cut my teeth on (Fourrier, Mugneret-Gibourg, Barthod, Bruno Clavelier) are too pricey for me and others that have great terroir seem to be charging insane amounts. If x can charge $100 for village Gevrey than I can charge $80. It's insane. 10 years ago I was selling '99 Lignier Gevrey, Chambolle and Morey Village wines for $39.99 at a retail store in NYC. And making great margins to boot. I miss the Salad Days of Burgundy pricing. But Champagne is the next Burgundy. Mark my words, vintage champagne from people you and I want to drink will quickly start approaching $100 as the entry fee. NV will be $60-$85. It's all about getting in on the ground floor. That is why all of your older friends have cellars stuffed with top Rhone, Burgs and Bordeaux and if really geeky, old Loire and Chablis as well. Right now, through my direct model, I am offering some of the best deals in high quality grower Champagne. Don't sleep and let the prices get out of control and miss out on packing your cellar full of tomorrow's superstars at today's sensible prices.
Yann Alexandre is a small domaine of 6 hectares in the North in the small village of Courmas in the area of the Montagne-de-Reims. They have been producing wine since the mid 18th century which is about 9 generations. The wines are just what I like in Champagne. Lively, fruity, very precise, a tad unconventional and of course offering incredible value for the money. They, like many other winemakers in the region, respect the land but don't go overboard and use the the lutte raisonnée method, which means "the reasoned struggle." This is a way of saying that producers who use this "reasoned struggle" are much less aggressive in their usage of chemical and pesticide treatments, but at the end of the day they will use it as they are running a business and need to harvest grapes to make wine.
They were very passionate in explaining that these are wines of terroir as some Champagne can be blends of so many parcels and vintages that eventually the terroir gets lost in translation. Not here. Each parcel is vinified separately. They are aged in their cool cellar for 5 years before release. The malo, partial malo or no malo is decided on a vintage by vintage basis. The wines are all fermented in oak barrels so there is body to these Champagnes. But not huge body and they retain wonderful elegance and finesse. This is a house that has very small production of only 30,000 bottles a year split up with multiple cuvees.
2005 Yann Alexandre Extra Brut 1er Cru - $52.99 ($149.97 3-pack)
(Very Limited/Allocated)
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