An Extraordinary Night of Champagne: Krug ’88, Clos des Goisses ’96, Selosse & More

An extraordinary Champagne dinner organized by Harumi at Cafe Pro Bono in Palo Alto. This was a genuinely special opportunity to appreciate Champagne: not simply a collection of great bottles, but a lineup spanning nearly four decades, from legendary mature wines to some of the most exciting grower Champagnes being made today. Several of these are produced in tiny quantities and are difficult enough to encounter individually; tasting them side by side, contributed and shared by everyone around the table, was quite something.

The food at Cafe Pro Bono was, as always, delicious and expertly prepared. Their polished Italian cooking is especially well suited to a serious wine dinner, letting the ingredients and wines speak for themselves. The prawns and pasta dishes were terrific — particularly the sautéed prawns and linguine with clams — and absolutely perfect with the Champagnes.

We started with NV Veuve Fourny Cuvée “R” Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut Premier Cru, a pleasant opener, before moving into the more serious wines.

2012 Pierre Péters “Les Chétillons.” One of the benchmark single-vineyard Blanc de Blancs of the Côte des Blancs, from old Chardonnay vines in the celebrated Les Chétillons vineyard in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Pierre Péters has deep roots in Le Mesnil, and Chétillons is its flagship and one of the wines that helped establish the domaine among Champagne’s elite growers. Very good, precise and clearly high quality, but still very young. In this company I didn’t find it quite as fine or compelling as the best wines that followed.

2004 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs — one of Champagne’s historic prestige Blanc de Blancs, made entirely from Grand Cru Chardonnay. This bottle was quite soft. Elegant and pleasant, but it didn’t have the tension or personality of my favorites that night.

Then came the rosés, and both were terrific.

Krug Rosé 20ème Édition — wonderfully complex and vinous. Krug only created its rosé in the 1970s, applying the house’s extraordinary blending philosophy to a completely different expression of Champagne, incorporating a huge library of reserve wines along with traditionally macerated Pinot Noir. Complex, spicy and beautifully composed. Loved it.

Egly-Ouriet Brut Rosé Grand Cru was equally compelling. Egly-Ouriet has become one of the defining estates of grower Champagne, built around superb Grand Cru holdings in Ambonnay and a powerful, vinous, Pinot-driven style. Francis Egly is rightly regarded as one of Champagne’s great growers. This had real substance and precision — serious rosé Champagne and another favorite.

We briefly left Champagne for 2010 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, Premier Grand Cru Classé Saint-Émilion, before getting into one of the most interesting flights of the evening: three wines from Bérêche, all excellent.

Bérêche is one of the great success stories of modern grower Champagne. The family has been growing vines in Ludes since the 19th century, and brothers Raphaël and Vincent Bérêche have elevated the estate into the top echelon of Champagne growers, with an intense focus on individual vineyards, old vines and terroir. Their wines have a particularly vinous character and tremendous personality.

The 2022 Bérêche & Fils Aÿ Coteaux Champenois was perhaps the most fascinating discovery of the evening — a rare still white Chardonnay from Grand Cru Aÿ. Coteaux Champenois itself is made in minuscule quantities compared with sparkling Champagne, and serious examples from top growers can be particularly difficult to find.

This was seriously impressive. Great texture and stature, almost Grand Cru white Burgundy-like in scale, but beautifully balanced. It had the density and presence of a serious wine rather than simply being a curiosity from Champagne. Clearly needs time, too.

Then the two sparkling Bérêches.

2020 Bérêche & Fils Les Beaux Regards, 100% Chardonnay from Ludes Premier Cru. This was my favorite of the two — energetic, complex and more exotic. Really loved it. Les Beaux Regards has become one of Bérêche’s signature site-specific Champagnes and a compelling expression of Chardonnay from the Montagne de Reims.

2020 Pauline Collin-Bérêche Vieilles Vignes, Ludes Premier Cru was excellent as well. Pauline Collin-Bérêche is Raphaël Bérêche’s wife, but produces this Champagne under her own name, from her family’s old vines in Ludes. Made in tiny quantities, it was rounder and broader than the Bérêche & Fils Les Beaux Regards and not quite as exotic. I preferred Les Beaux, although all three wines in this Bérêche family grouping were excellent.

Then we got into some truly great Champagne.

1996 Philipponnat Clos des Goisses was magnificent. Clos des Goisses is one of Champagne’s great historic single vineyards: a dramatically steep, walled, predominantly south-facing vineyard overlooking the Marne that has belonged to Philipponnat since the 1930s. Its exceptional exposition produces unusually powerful, concentrated and long-lived Champagne.

And 1996 is a particularly compelling vintage to encounter today, combining ripeness with extraordinary acidity and structure. Nearly 30 years later, this bottle was powerful and mature, yet still wonderfully alive. One of my wines of the night.

Jacques Selosse “Sous le Mont.” Selosse hardly needs an introduction among Champagne lovers. Anselme Selosse was one of the pivotal figures in the transformation of grower Champagne, bringing a distinctly Burgundian sensibility to individual vineyards and helping change the conversation from Champagne as primarily a blended sparkling wine to Champagne as an expression of terroir.

Sous le Mont is especially rare: a single-vineyard Pinot Noir Blanc de Noirs from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, part of Selosse’s tiny Lieux-Dits collection. These are among the most distinctive and sought-after wines in Champagne.

Unmistakably Selosse — vinous, oxidative, textural, exotic and utterly individual. Loved it. There simply isn’t much Champagne that tastes like Selosse.

2008 Bollinger R.D. was another heavyweight. R.D. — Récemment Dégorgé — was one of Madame Bollinger’s great innovations: extended aging on the lees followed by relatively recent disgorgement, marrying the complexity of long maturation with remarkable freshness. The 2008 is a Pinot Noir-dominant blend from 18 crus and comes from one of the most acclaimed Champagne vintages of this century.

A powerhouse. Huge structure, intensity and material — and to me still so young. It may eventually be one of the great wines in this lineup, but right now I’d love to give it another decade.

2002 Dom Pérignon was solid but undistinguished in this company. Nothing wrong with it; it simply got lost among wines with considerably more personality.

And finally, 1988 Krug Vintage.

Incredible.

Krug 1988 has become one of the legendary mature vintages of the house, from a growing season that produced wines of exceptional balance, freshness and structure. The blend was 50% Pinot Noir, 32% Chardonnay and 18% Meunier.

At almost four decades old, this bottle was profound. Mature and immensely complex, yet with remarkable energy and structure. Everything had come together without the wine losing its vitality. This is one of the great pleasures of Champagne that is difficult to experience often: what a truly great bottle can become after decades of proper aging.

My wine of the night, easily.

The 1996 Clos des Goisses and Selosse Sous le Mont were right behind it. I also loved both the Egly-Ouriet and Krug rosés, while the entire Bérêche trio was excellent — Les Beaux Regards my favorite of the two Champagnes, and the still Aÿ Chardonnay perhaps the most fascinating discovery of the evening.

And the 2008 Bollinger R.D. has enormous potential. It just needs time.

What made the evening particularly special was having all of these wines on the same table. Mature 1988 Krug and 1996 Clos des Goisses; Selosse from one of his tiny lieux-dits; rare Bérêche Coteaux Champenois; Krug and Egly rosés; and young wines like the 2008 R.D. that gave us a glimpse of what another generation of great Champagne may become.

You can buy great Champagne. It is much harder to assemble this combination of rarity, age, provenance and different expressions of the region in one evening — and then actually drink them together, over a wonderful dinner, with people who genuinely appreciate them.

A very special night for anyone who loves Champagne.

Thank you Harumi for organizing, and everyone around the table for the generosity in bringing and sharing such remarkable bottles.