EA | Medium deep lemon colour. Really expressive, layered nose with charred oaky and stylish yeasty qualities lining the plush fruitiness. Baked pear, orange blossom and candied lemon. Broad and textured palate with a smooth mousse enhancing the notion of vinosity. There is a tingling mineral feel to the structured, medium-weight palate. The long finish carries a stamp of high-quality oak, which will mellow over time.Drink Dates: 2024 - 2031. 93
SF | Buckwheat colour with a persistent mousse; honied, extravagent oaky nose; ripe, with nougat, nectarine and hints of toffee apple and linseed; an indulgent style, vanillin writ large and a ripeness of fruit which masquerades, quite successfully, as sweetness, althought this is Extra Brut. Reserve wine has been liberally applied, adding depth and resonance. A crowd-peasing style, roccoco and fulsome, its amplitude almost hiding a seriousness of composition and purpose. 89
AR | With an attractive pale golden hue, this is showing some subtle complexity of aroma, perhaps in part due to a decent proportion of reserve wine in the blend (although we don't know this); tinitially there is a nutty, dry savoury character in the aroma, a tolerable level of aldeyde, and then you taste, perhaps the first point that strikes you is a fruit sweetness for an extra brut that puts you in a quandary: is it excessive or balanced? Overall I think it just about walks the tightrope of sweetness and balance because it's balanced by a slight phenolic bitterness on the finish.Drink Dates: 2024 - 2028. 89