![]() Most têtes de cuveés come from a specific vintage, and for the most famous brand of all, Dom Pérignon, the current release is 2009. I don’t recommend spraying it on your friends on New Year’s Eve. The current release, which blends 127 wines from 11 vintages between 19, is deep and rich enough to accompany almost any holiday meal it’s a perfect match for turkey or ham. Krug also makes a vintage Champagne, and has just released the excellent 2004, although the bulk of its production goes into the Grande Cuvée. This complexity may not be ideal for a nightclub setting-and I suspect that Krug is unlikely to challenge Jay-Z’s brand in that arena. ![]() In short, the kind of amplitude of flavor that makes most Champagnes seem light and simple. The Krug had a vibrant, almost electric acidity and a kaleidoscopic palate impression that suggested pastry and filling-pear, apple, and apricot, although the impression is dry and steely rather than sweet. That particular incarnation was not the one I tasted recently, which was fairly one-dimensional, lacking depth and complexity, especially alongside the current release of Krug’s Grande Cuvée, a luxury blend for half the price. So how does it taste? Or perhaps a better question is, does it taste like $300? Some critics give it high marks in 2009, Armand de Brignac came in first in a blind tasting hosted by Fine Cham pagne magazine. So how does it taste? A better question is does it taste like $300. (In 2014, Jay-Z announced that he had bought a stake in the brand, although he may have already owned a big chunk.) ![]() Hip-hop journalist Zack O’Malley Greenburg suggests that the brand was created with Jay-Z’s input and financial participation, calculating the possible profits to be around $200 per bottle. Within months Jay-Z appeared in the video for “Show Me What You Got” holding Armand de Brignac’s signature ace of spades– embossed metallic gold bottle. “We can’t forbid people from buying it.” A boycott was called. That ended in 2006, when Cristal’s managing director, Frédéric Rouzaud, was asked by the Economist how he felt about the patronage of all those rappers. “It told people that we were elevating our game, not by throwing on a bigger chain, but by showing more refined, and even slightly obscure, taste.”Īs a result, Cristal became the hip-hop Champagne, name-checked in songs and drizzled in videos. In his memoir Decoded, Jay-Z writes that he started drinking Cristal-an insider’s wine, unlike, say, Dom Pérignon-even before he had a record deal. Jay-Z, Sean Combs, and a bottle of Armand de Brignac Champagne, aka “Ace of Spades.” KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES FOR ROC NATION After the Germans bombed its vineyards, the company found itself in dire straits, but, led by Camille Olry-Roederer, it recovered during the ’50s, eventually becoming a much drier wine favored by connoisseurs. You may recall that until recently Cristal was the favored label of bubbly-loving rappers, Jay-Z being among the earliest devotees of the brand, which was originally a sweet sparkling wine produced by Louis Roederer for Czar Alexander II. under mysterious circumstances in 2006, although its producers, the Cattier family, have been in business since 1625. When it comes to glitz, it’s hard to top Armand de Brignac, which appeared in the U.S. These are easily identified by their ostentatious packaging and three-digit prices. We’re all more likely to splurge on Champagne at this time, which is why I thought I’d undertake a highly personal assessment of current luxury bottlings, known in the trade as têtes de cuvées. Nevertheless, about 40 percent of the stuff is sold in the year’s final quarter, much of it for quaffing on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and especially New Year’s. As someone who drinks Champagne more or less daily, I hate associating the world’s most versatile wine with holidays.
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