My First Sparkling Wine of the Year. The Holy Trinity: Delicious, Complex and Ageworthy

There is a lot of pressure selecting a wine of the year.  A lot of people will buy it and frankly, as a

retailer, you are disproportionately judged on your wine of the year selections.  So you have to pick something that is not only a no brainer stunning wine but also an incredible value.  This is no easy feat in the sparkling wine world as prices tend to be higher than for still wines (for the same level of quality).  So I waited until year 3 to select a sparkling wine of the year and, make no mistake, it is one of the best wines in my portfolio.

My sparkling wine of the year is the Perseval-Farge NV Brut "Cuvee Jean Baptiste" for $49.99 a 3-pack.  

I gave this wine a straight up 10/10 points when I tasted it.  Only 5 other wines the entire trip were in that category.

It's one of those wines that are perfect. Simply perfect.

The nose is class and complexity at the same time. It has that aged youth thing that great aged Champagne has, yet it is brilliantly youthful on the palate with the finest mousse I tasted during my time in Champagne. As I look back on my note, the wine almost rushed back onto my palate. The finesse and wonderful toasty/brioche quality backed by the terrific minerality that frames it all. That finish that is long and beautifully elegant. Just such classy and sophisticated bubbles. Classy and sophisticated are descriptors that are kept almost exclusively when describing great Champagne. Of course there is real depth here as the blend of vintages gives it that and there is no lack of freshness due to the high acid of these 3 vintages.

Please do not think of this as a $49.99 Champagne.  It would cost $80 or more through three tier and at that price, it is an undiscovered value.  This wine has been resting in the cellar for almost 20 years - for the finance types, do a back of the envelope on the time value of money impact on this wine.

I think this is at the same quality level as all the hipster/somm faves, Prevost, Bereche and Brochet, but since I am always ahead of the curve it is not discovered as no one has IG'ed or Delectable'd it and hashtagged it with #unicornwine or #ballerwine. This wine is woth at least 75 likes on Delectable and 100+ on Instagram.

It is a blend of 55% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir and 15% Pinot Meunièr. What gets interesting is the years the blend is from. It is 40% 1999, 50% 1998 and 10% 1996. Now that is a great blend of vintages. Champagne is a blender's art. This is a great example of blending across grapes and vintages. I can see this aging for 10-15 more years but it is ready now due to the blend of older vintages.

This year we are going to do something a little different with our wines of the year. Usually they cluster all together in December during the holiday rush and sometimes they don't get the attention they deserve. A lot goes into what the wine of the year is. As soon as I venture to Europe in the cold dog days of February, I am always very curious as to what will have the most palate impact and stuck on my kind as I fly back. It's always on my mind as I'm tasting and reflecting upon what I've tasted. Also, they are almost out of this wine at the winery, so it has to be now!

One thing that I am particularly proud of from my recent trip to Europe was coming back with 3 really top top class Champagne estates. We are shortly going to ship these to you and hopefully you'll agree. One that stands out for its uniqueness and flavor impact had to be the beautiful Champagnes of Isabelle and Benoit Perseval.

Chamery is a beautiful little village, albeit we had to get directions via cell phone from Isabelle, the last 10 minutes we really got to see it. I will never forget my tasting there. One after the other. All so beautiful and unique in their own way, but clearly as you go up the ladder, there is a significant jump in quality. The estate is only 4 hectares in the small village of Chamery, but like our own Croix Montjoie in Vezelay, it is unusual that all the wines they make are from one continuous plot. It's usually not that way in Champagne at all. There are maybe 27 or 28 Clos' in all of Champagne. Not that this is one, but pretty close. They farm sustainably and are very concerned about what their work on the land will affect future generations. They call it "viticulture integrée." They use lower sulfur than most but not at the levels of natural winemakers. He is 50% below the norm in Champagne for sulfur additions.

NV Perseval Farge "Cuvee Jean Baptiste" - $52.99 ($149.97 3-pack)