A bubbly New Year’s Eve

Years go by. This one is about to end, but life goes on. Time for a top ten list? Well, let’s leave that to those who cannot help making an evaluation. We prefer 4 last minute proposals, for the last moment of the year. Four wines dedicated to those who always look at life as a glass half full.

Emeraude Brut Alain Réaut
We’re in the Cotes des Bars, on the border between Champagne and Bourgogne. In this countryside crossed by the river Seine, in the small village of Courteron, for the past 35 years Alain Réaut has been cultivating 11 hectares of vineyard that enjoy a perfect exposure to the sun and a microclimate that for pinot noir means a definite maturation. Since 1992 the winery production is organic. Brut Emeraude is an assemblage of 90% pinot noir and 10% chardonnay, a delicate golden nuance and a very fine and enjoyable perlage. Hardly buttery. It is cutting and straight with a clear citrus note that stimulates salivation.

Blauwald Cesconi
We don’t like to keep good-luck charms in our pocket, or to forget them in the sock-drawer. It’s best to sip them in glasses. The farewell to 2013 seems the perfect occasion. Let’s not spare the cork from popping, a tribute to the blow of the blue whale dominating the label of Cesconi’s Blauwald. A 100% chardonnay wine, 52 months on the lees, vintage 2008, only 1 g/l of added sugars with the addition of the same wine only. This wine is still in a primordial state, slightly toasted because of the maturation in small barrels that are over 5 years old and a great testimony of the territory. It is a great synthesis of fresh and citrusy scents with a creamy palate and great structure.

Blanc des Millenaires (vintage 1995) Charles Heidsieck
Charles Heidsieck, Prussian surname and Lutheran family, fell in love and married a young woman from Reims. He was then naturalised French and converted himself to Catholicism. He was estranged from family affairs. He luckily didn’t convert himself to any other wine and in 1851 he founded his Maison. An ordinary man would not have lived so long and certainly would have not arrived to such success by investing so deeply: 47 Gaul-Roman crayères from the 2nd century, linked via tunnels and galleries that are 20 metres deep at a constant temperature of 10°C. Here the chef de cave assembles the Heidsieck champagnes, including this one: Blanc des Millenaires, vintage 1995, 100% chardonnay. 18 years is the best age, perfect for a golden dress and a voluptuous texture. Hazelnut and ginger strike the nose and anticipate freshness and agility. However, it is generous on the palate, like an almond milk foam.

Eclat Saten Santa Lucia (tel. +39.3357599006)
This 100% Chardonnay from Franciacorta is a new-born with a 20year-old conscience. In its perlage all the experience of a true wine producer explodes, that of Pierluigi Villa who, after having worked for a long time in a top firm such as Bellavista, did not retire and bought a few hectares of land he knew perfectly well and began his own adventure. Eclat means “brilliance, intense light”. Indeed, this light shines in the glass. The Santa Lucia’s Eclat Brut Saten, 100% Chardonnay, is a little powdery at the beginning, but then, a few minutes later, its silkiness and softness are perfectly defined.