Wine With Bok - 9.25/10 Stars

Update

Symphony Cap Leopard is a new range of champagne by Andre Clouet. Composed of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay, grapes were sourced from Premier Cru and Grand Cru plots from Montagne de Reims. Content was fermented in old oak barrels and steel tanks, with 10 years on yeast. Dosage 4.8 g/L. The style of this new range of champagne is like a steady middle-aged gentleman with a firm grasp with his high-flying career, won’t deviate course nor jump ship to other lucrative attractions. Nose of ripe fruits along with flinty nose. Palate is firmly in a slightly aged ripe fruit territory, exhibiting the Pinot Noir characteristics very well. Meanwhile, Dream Vintage 2015 was made with 100% Chardonnay, it’s certainly very different style from Symphony Cap Leopard. Drinking side by side, Dream Vintage is like a fine young actor, occasionally exhibiting a lively and flirty character, and while the warmed up, it also showed off the matured and rich content, the evolution of the champagne is truly stunning, with different styles showing up at different drinking stages. I did not expect so much changes compared to the last bottle I had (tasting notes here: 2015 Andre Clouet Dream Vintage Bouzy Champagne | Fine Wines Pte Ltd). I gave my heart to Dream Vintage for the show down tonight.

Wine With Bok - 9.25/10 Stars

Andre Clouet’s Dream Vintage is only produced on great champagne vintages instead of yearly production, thus far, we have only encountered 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018. Andre Clouet uses 100% Chardonnay to produce this champagne, of which, 50% of the grapes came from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, while the other 50% from Bouzy. Andre Clouet has captured the better part of the 2015 vintage characteristics. Despite the smaller than average yields, the result was stunning. The tension of the Blanc de Blanc was retained by the superb winemaking skill, while the wine has a beautiful balanced texture with rich and intense fruits. Clearly a superb vintage, you can drink now or cellar it for a couple more years and it’ll certainly develop into more tertiary flavours down the road.

Maison André Clouet spans 9 hectares of parcels, all of which grand cru, located in Bouzy. It has been upholding tradition and regional expertise for more than 200 years. The domain even owns vines gifted by Napoleon, as a thank you for his role as king's scribe. The Chardonnay which makes up this cuvée has been grown on clay and limestone soil before being harvested by hand. The Maison has favoured alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in steel vats. The wine has then aged on its lees for four years. On tasting, it unfurls a fine balance marked by aromatic freshness and a full-bodied palate. Thus, we find notes of white fruit, citrus fruit and minerals on the nose whilst the palate is generous and marked by extremely fine bubbles.