The 2024 Champagne Extravaganza Tasting is almost here….
You are invited to join us on a sparkling journey through 12 of the world’s most celebrated Champagnes in the 2024 edition of Lamont's annual Champagne Extravaganza!
This is a rare, relaxed tasting experience with some of the finest and most iconic Champagnes ever crafted—featuring the famous, the rare, and the best-reviewed wines from the likes of Krug, Dom Pérignon, Louis Roederer, Charles-Heidsieck, Bollinger, Billecart-Salmon, and more.
“Only the unimaginative can fail to find a reason for drinking Champagne” - Oscar Wilde
This year we’ve decided to leave the hosting to you! The perfect environment to allow you to sit down at your own table, with friends and/or family and experience some of the worlds most famous, greatest, rarest and best reviewed Champagnes.
Tasting
Time: 3-5pm
12 Glorious Champagnes with Nibbles
Tickets: $675
Saturday November 23rd
The Champagnes
On Arrival
Louis Roederer NV Collection 244, Our Price $97
95 Points, Tyson Stelzer, champagne.guide (2023)
Based on the 2019 vintage, Roederer's NV Brut Collection 244 is the finest release of the house's reimagined non-vintage Brut to date.”
The freshness and energy of Collection 244 are on grand display and has not diminished one iota since its first release. The magnificent 2019 base was in a more confident place when it first landed than 242 and 243 before it, which both blossomed after an additional year on cork. Do not underestimate 244, and don’t miss a moment of the spectacle set to unravel over the coming months, years and even decades. This is a masterful interplay of primary fruit, with the spicy, honeyed, roast nut layers of substantial reserves and oak fermentation and maturation, energised equally by malic tension and saline chalk minerality, nudged with just the right level of phenolic tension that lends neither graininess nor bitterness. This is not only an exceptional Collection, it is also a grand declaration of the fine-tuned detail of the evolution of Collection and the triumphant achievement of upholding the holy grail of freshness and tension even in such a warm season.
94 Points, Stuart Piggot, jamessuckling.com. (July 2023)
The first impression is as invigorating as a sea breeze. I love the interplay of mirabelle, grapefruit and lychee fruit with minty freshness and waxiness from lees contact. And all this is welded to a beautifully proportioned palate with plenty of structure, the acidity bright and the mousse animating. Very salty finish that pulls you back for more.
(In Alphabetical Order)
Billecart Cuvée Nicolas Francois 2008, Our Price $426
100 Points, Tyson Stelzer, The Champagne Guide (2023)
Long have I anticipated Nicolas François Billecart 2008 and my first encounter came with Antoine in the dining room of the house in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. I spent a full 20 minutes riveted by its evolution in the glass, moving me to tears. The profound precision and intricate, molecular detail that defines Billecart is transported to a higher level of fidelity in 2008, illuminating a brilliant display of fine chalk minerality of the highest proportions. A saline chalk core erupts from its depths, framing the most pure lemon fruit and strawberry hull; emphatically, unrelentingly and sublimely primary, without even the slightest movement toward evolution. In time, pinot steps forward in the most gloriously pure red cherry fruits. Even 17 months post-disgorgement, it is still intricately, tightly coiled, with an undeterred line and unrelenting persistence; a high-tensile spring of taut, pure energy that screams out for a lifetime to uncoil. This is an NFB with sixty years of glorious life stretching before it, and strictly must not to be approached for at least another decade yet.
98 Points Jeb Dunnuck, (November 2023)
Based on 60% Pinot Noir and the rest Chardonnay, with 17% raised in barrels, the 2008 Champagne Nicolas François spent more than 150 months on its lees, with 2.9 grams per liter dosage. It pours a rich straw hue and is layered and long with aromas of truffle, apricot, croissant, floral orange blossoms, and marmalade. Full-bodied, it’s supple in texture, with a rounded mousse, and has a long-lasting, mouthwatering finish. Exceptionally well-balanced, it comes together seamlessly on the finish. This will be a wine to enjoy over the next three decades.
Bollinger RD 2008, Our Price $600
99 Points, James Suckling (March 2023)
Amazing aromas of sweet uncooked pie crust with almonds. Then you smell dried apples, apricots and pineapple. Grilled fruits, too. Full-bodied. So tangy and energetic with sizzling acidity and creamy tannins. Flavourful and lightly oxidized at the finish. Smacking my lips. Agile. Ginger and spices. A touch of bitter complexity with some salinity. Extreme character that grabs your attention. 13 years and six months aging on the lees with cork. 3 grams dosage. 71% pinot noir and 29% chardonnay. Don’t serve too cold. Drink or hold.
98+ Points, William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (March 2023)
...On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, with a deep core of fruit that's animated by racy acids and a refined pinpoint mousse, concluding with a bone-dry finish. Extremely harmonious and full of youthful energy, it's the finest R. D. of the decade and one that will richly reward a bit of additional age on cork. In style, the most obvious comparison is with the 1996, but the 2008 is more integrated and harmonious on release. These bottles were disgorged late last year with three grams per litre dosage.
Louis Roeder Cristal 2015, Our Price $593
98 Points Lisa Perrotti Brown (April 2023)
The 2015 Cristal is a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. No malo-lactic was employed, and 25% wine was aged in oak. The dosage is 7 grams per liter. An exquisitely delicate yet complex perfume of clover honey, freshly shaved ginger, marzipan, and jasmine slowly emerges from the nose, giving way to a core of pear tart, persimmons, and apple butter. The palate is an exercise in finesse, featuring very fine bubbles and fantastic intensity with a myriad of spice and floral nuances, finishing with impressive persistence and jaw-dropping poise. This is a style for those that embrace purity, soft-spoken expression, and impeccable crafting. It won't disappoint those who love Champagne in its initial youthful perfume flushes, yet will undoubtedly reward the patient with a richer, toastier, more obvious and opulent style with 5-10 years+ of cellaring.
98 Points, John Gilman
The 2015 Louis Roederer Cristal is composed this year from a cépages of sixty percent pinot noir and forty percent chardonnay, with twenty-five percent of the vins clairs raised in oak barrels. As is customary, the still wines do not go through malolactic fermentation for Cristal and the wine was finished with a dosage of seven grams per liter in this vintage, after aging nearly seven years sur lattes. It delivers a beautifully refined aromatic constellation of apple, nectarine, a superbly complex base of chalky minerality, a touch of raw almond, pâtissière, white flowers and a very, very discreet hint of oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and utterly seamless in its perfect balance, with a marvellous core, superb soil signature and grip, zesty acids and a very, very long, focused and complex finish. 2015 is a riper year in Champagne and this seems to have dovetailed brilliantly with the classic Cristal style of mineral signature, precise fruit tones and great structural integrity. This is destined to be a great, great classic vintage of Cristal!
Dom Perignon 2013, Our Price $488
98 Points, James Suckling (May 2022)
A driven and serious DP with aromas of chalk, biscuits, apricot stones and lemons. Some spice and dried flowers, too. So sleek and sophisticated. Elegant. Yet, it’s long and powerful, with a sharp minerality. Tight and precise.
Charles-Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires 2007, Our Price $450
98 Points Anne Krehbiel MW (March 2022)
The nose is very subtle, has glimpses of oyster shell and lemon. The palate is taut, bright, super-fresh, linear, lemony and just incredibly youthful. There is a vein on ripe, lemony freshness that pervades this wine, that sets the tone, that defines its character. This is intense, insistent, urgent, yet also gentle and smooth with very fine mousse. A wonderful and most compelling personality. Exquisite. The finish is a serene stretch of lemony, chalky, profound freshness. Drink now or keep. Will evolve.
97 Points Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast
One of the great Blanc de Blancs Champagnes, this wine only hints of its age and maturity. Up front, the wine has layers of white fruits and a steely texture. It is behind those features that the brioche and almond character begins to show. This is a wonderfully balanced wine, ready to drink now.
Krug Vintage 2006, Our Price $826
97 Points, Tyson Stelzer, The Champagne Guide
The lusciousness of the warm 2006 season makes for an irresistible Krug, with just the right level of malic tension and chalk mineral vibrancy to complete a seamless, lingering, enticing palate. The universe of Krug complexity delivers a mesmerising landscape of truffle and molten wax. A vintage of irresistible allure.
97 Points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Krug 2006 Vintage is bright, tense and full of energy. Lemon confit, pastry, chamomile, dried flowers and tangerine oil all race out of the glass. The breadth of the Pinot comes through on the mid-palate and finish, as the 2006 gains power and resonance with a bit of aeration.
Krug Grand Cuvée 172ème, Our Price $476
97 Points, James Suckling (March 2024)
Beautiful notes of dried citrus fruit, lemon curd and dried apples with hints of spices, dried flowers and subtle brioche. I like the polished and caressing texture and steady, refreshing acidity. It’s fresh and even austere, with notes of ground spices. So vertical and firm. Structured and long. Drink or hold.
97 Points, Natalie Earl, Decanter (April 2024)
The 172ème édition, based around the 2016 vintage, is a delicate, floral and saline Grande Cuvée at this early stage in its life. The palate it taut, tightly wound, gradually unfurling into toasted fruit bread, rye bread and roasted nuts, wrapped around an intricate and taut lemon core. It's exceptionally long, spicy, rounded and spherical in shape. Notes of sweet unsalted butter round out the finish, which has such length, elegance and balance. 58% of the wine is from the 2016 vintage, which saw a lot of rain in the spring and close to flowering, with 42% from reserve wines. The blend is made up of 146 separately vinified wines from 11 different years, and the oldest wine in the blend is from the 1998 vintage.
Larmandier-Bernier Vieille Vigne de Levant Grand Cru 2013, Our Price $440
The Larmandier family excelled in this cooler vintage, so it's unsurprising that the 2013 Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Vieilles Vigne du Levant has turned out beautifully. Wafting from the glass with notes of crisp yellow orchard fruit, brioche, white flowers, oyster shell and honeycomb, it's medium to full-bodied, deep, layered and incisive, with a tangy spine of acidity, terrific tension and a long, racy finish.
96+ Points William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (December 2023)
Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill 2015, Our Price $558
96 Points, James Suckling (July 2023)
Very complex nose with a wide spectrum of candied citrus, dried peach and mirabelle tart aromas. Bold and rich, particularly on the mid-palate, but with a great deal of subtlety and delicacy for the vintage. This is already delicious, but at the finish you really taste how this has been made for the long term. Great drive and persistence right at the end. Drink or hold.
95 Points, Alison Napjus Wine Spectator(2023)
A tightly meshed Champagne, with an up-front, broad feel that's quickly reined in and well-defined by racy acidity. Creamy on the palate, with the fine mousse carrying flavors of crème de cassis, lemon-infused pastry cream, smoked almond and oyster shell. Long, harmonious finish. Drink now through 2038.
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2012, Our Price $450
99 Points, James Suckling (December 2022)
This is a fantastic and refined Blanc de Blancs. So layered and complex, with lemon curd, chalk, hazelnuts, pastries, baked apples and almond croissants. Structured and tightly wound, with almost imperceptible bubbles. Delicious salty notes at the end. Beautiful.
Billecart Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon Rosé 2008, Our Price $435
99 Points, Tyson Stelzer, The Champagne Guide (2022)
The electrifying energy of 2008 charges Elisabeth Salmon with a dynamism and an endurance like never before. To capture such precision and such concentration of epic, pure morello cherry and raspberry fruit and yet at every instant to remain steadfast to the elegance and refinement that is Billecart is the profound juxtaposition that elevates 2008 to dizzying heights. Testimony to the depth of south-facing Mareuil pinot noir even in a season as cool as 2008, just 9% red wine is all it takes to infuse a pretty, medium salmon hue that has taken on a copper tint in time. It confidently takes 14 years in its stride, revealed only in the most subtle nuances of vanilla and marzipan. With time in the glass, it billows to incredible heights of spice and even suggestions of fruit mince spice. A little fermentation in old oak barrels builds texture and integration more than it does a subtle nuance of jamon. Partial malolactic fermentation in a season with malic acidity as pronounced as 2008 is a nail-biting affair, perfectly played by chef de cave François Domi. Radiant acidity spirals with minerality as fine as ground glass to drive incredible persistence and build a shimmering jetstream that slices through a finish of endless blue daylight. It is dashing from the outset, yet possesses decades of potential coiled into its graceful yet commanding folds.
Krug Rosé 21éme Édition, Magnum , Our Price $1348
97 Points, James Suckling (August 2023)
This is creamy textured with dried and cooked strawberries as well as iron and mineral undertones. Medium-bodied with real class and focus with a wonderful creamy texture. Subtle and long. Hints of cotton candy.
97 Points, Natalie Earl, Decanter (April 2024)
The 21ème édition is really in its stride now, although it still has lots of life ahead of it. The aromas seduce immediately with their notes of dainty red currants, peach parfait and glistening strawberry tart. It has lots of energy and tension still, unfolding into notes of marzipan and dried autumn leaves. Based on the 2008 vintage, a fairly cool year, and is a blend of 57 wines back to 2000.