An
evening with Laurent-Perrier
Connaught Hotel, London
4th October 2004
This
was an opportunity, organised by Bibendum, to taste through most of the range of
champagnes produced by Laurent Perrier, and then to taste a number of them again
over a fine dinner, hosted by the Vicomte de la Giraudière with a menu
especially devised and prepared by Angela Hartnett, protegée of Gordon Ramsay,
but very much her own woman. Angela launched Menu and The Grill Room at
the Connaught in October 2002 and gained her first Michelin Star in January
2004. She also received the ‘Best Newcomer Award’ at the Hotel and Restaurant
Awards.
Laurent-Perrier
was founded with, as Bernard de la Giraudière pointed out, remarkably poor
timing in 1812 and has ever since been based at Tours-sur-Marne near Epernay.
Unsurprisingly, the firm was started by the Laurent family which married into
the Perrier (no relation to the water) family. As with other champagne
houses, women have played an important role in steering Laurent-Perrier:
initially in the shape of Mathilde Perrier, or rather Mathilde Laurent, who took
over when her husband Eugene Laurent died and under whose direction the firm was
known as Veuve Laurent Perrier (compare Veuve Clicquot who have never dropped
the 'Veuve'). More recently it was Marie-Louise Lanson de Nonacourt (the
sister of Victor and Henri Lanson of the Lanson champagne house) who rescued the
company, buying it when Mathilde Laurent died in 1938. Once again, not the
best time to take on a champagne house. Today Bernard de Nonancourt is
Chairman of the supervisory board at Laurent-Perrier, having taken on the reins
in 1949 (after time as a hero in the French resistance and liberating half a
million bottles of stolen French wines from Nazi 'storage' in the Bavarian Alps,
including several hundred cases of Salon champagne, which he had seen being
stolen five years previously).
At the time Bernard
de Nonancourt took over, Laurent-Perrier barely made it into the top 100
champagne producers: now it is generally regarded to be somewhere in the top
five. Laurent-Perrier concentrate above all on non-vintage blends and the
emphasis is well away from vintage champagnes. Even L-P's prestige cuvée,
Grand Siècle, is non-vintage, being a blend of wines from three vintages (and
from Grand Cru vineyards): indeed Grand Siècle was the first ever multi-vintage
prestige cuvée champagne. Chardonnay tends to be the dominant grape
variety blended with pinot noir. Pinot Meunier has plays only a small role
in L-P's champagnes.
For more information
on Laurent-Perrier, the best source is their
American website (the UK website
contains very little information, and the French website appears to be purely
corporate stock-exchangey type stuff).
The format of the
evening was a walk-round tasting, then canapés (with champagne naturally),
followed by the meal. Prices shown are Bibendum's retail prices (except
where noted).
Walkround wines
Laurent-Perrier Brut NV £23.99
Typically 45% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir and 15% Pinot Meunier and allegedly
exemplifying the house style: "fresh and easy to drink". Wines from more
than 55 crus make up the blend - 10 to 20% of which consists of reserve wines,
though this can be higher in some years. It is aged three years, then
liqueur d'expédition is added and the champagne is matured for a further six
months.
A very pale gold in colour and a very fresh nose. Crisp, light and quite
elegant. A bit of white pepper on the finish.
Laurent-Perrier Ultra Brut NV £33.30
In the 19th century, Laurent-Perrier was renowned for its "Grand vin sans Sucre"
but this hadn't been made for decades until L-P's winemaker Alain Terrier
decided to revive it in 1981 by creating Ultra Brut, a zero-dosage champagne,
aged for four years prior to release. 55% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir.
A pale greenish straw. The nose is very toasty and slightly minerally.
In the mouth, the first thing I notice is a markedly prickly mousse. It is
very, very dry, and almost a bit green. Tasted on its own, it lacks any
character at all and seems utterly pointless. (But see below - it shines
when paired with shellfish)
Laurent-Perrier Rosé NV £37.99
Apparently one of the best selling rosé champagnes in the world, this is a rosé
de saignée from 100% pinot noir sourced from ten grands crus vineyards.
A very, very pale salmon colour. An interesting nose with plenty of earthy
red fruit pinot noir character. Very fruity initially, then fills out to a
fully dry wine with some ripe fruit showing through. Very well balanced
and wonderfully elegant.
Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle 'La Cuvée', NV £52.99
An assemblage of three vintages (usually the most recent best three) and a blend
in more or less equal, but variable proportions of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir:
usually slightly more chardonnay than pinot noir. The grapes come from the
best plots in twelve grand crus vineyards. After blending, the wine is
aged for around five years. In bottle size, the vintages in the current
release are 1993, 1995 and 1996.
Mid straw colour. On the nose it seems remarkably old and I wonder if the
bottle's entirely ok, but I'm assured it is. Hmm... Concentrated
candied peel on the nose, but a bit dried out on the palate. Some
pepperiness, especially towards the finish. But really lacking character
and completely unimpressive. Which is odd, as a blend like this should, I
believe, have more character than the individual vintages that make it up.
Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle Alexandra Rosé 1997 £135
OK, the story first: it's named after the eldest daughter of Bernard de
Nonancourt, and was kept secret in the cellars until it was revealed as the
surprise wedding present at Alexandra's wedding in 1987. It is made in very
small quantities and only in the best years (1997 is the fourth bottling).
80% pinot noir and 20% chardonnay from (naturally) the best vineyards. A
short maceration period, when the pinot noir and chardonnay grapes are blended
together, to extract the colour is followed by between five and ten years
ageing.
A mid coppery salmon colour in appearance. The nose seems rather muddy to
me, quite stinky and not totally pleasant. Another duff bottle? Some
dry cherry fruit. Rather odd and not at all to my taste. Returning
later, I find a second bottle has a much purer, cleaner nose, though still with
an earthiness to it. Again, soft dry cherry fruit, but this second bottle
is much cleaner and fresher tasting. But as with the white Grand Siècle,
it's still a touch simple and lacking character. It might be an
ultra-prestige wine and very rare, but it really does seem grossly overpriced
for what it is in the glass.
Laurent-Perrier Vintage 1996 Not yet released in the UK
Apparently a particularly good year. 45% chardonnay, 55% pinot noir.
Aged around six years and released with very light dosage.
Pale to mid straw with a few green tinges. A powerful, fruity nose with
crisp citrus fruit and peaches. Very peppery on the palate and a little
disjointed, with lots of acid. This has great potential but needs plenty
of time to come together.
Laurent-Perrier Vintage 1995 £32.71
55% chardonnay, 45% pinot noir with the same ageing and dosage principles as the
96.
A bright mid yellow straw, turning gold. A lovely creamy nose with fresh
citrus and marked honey notes. Rich and full with good complexity.
Intense white pepper spice on the finish.
Laurent-Perrier Vintage 1993 en magnum (everywine.co.uk
have this in bottles at £37)
Pale green-tinged straw. A complex nose with peaches and candied citrus,
and a hint of fermenting peach must. Full, rounded and very together.
Lovely structure and body of flavours. Excellent, haunting length.
Even better and more complex after a little while when it had warmed up a bit.
Laurent-Perrier Vintage 1988
Mid straw, turning gold, but still some green tinges. Powerful nose - dry
bread and blackcurrants with some candied peel. Rather odd on the palate -
almost dis-integrated (the hyphen is deliberate there). Powerful flavours
too, but it just doesn't seem to be at all together. I went back to this a
few times to try different bottles and, while there was undoubtedly some bottle
variation, they were all rather unimpressive.
Laurent-Perrier Vintage 1985
Mid gold. A lovely complex nose with some maderisation becoming more
evident than in the 88. The nose is dominated by dried apricots and a
touch of eau de vie de mirabelle. This is a wine that's completely
together. Lots of gorgeous ripe-flavoured fruit, yet very well balanced.
Lots of peach and apricot on the palate. Massive length. Very
impressive. Excellent ... almost heavenly.
Laurent-Perrier Vintage 1982
Deepish mid gold. A deep, though slightly simple nose: buttery toasty,
with some reductive oxidising notes. Gosh! This is full-on, powerful
flavours. Ripe stone fruits with more than a little of an old burgundy
feel to it. Very together. But definitely really only one for fans
of old champagnes: I can appreciate and enjoy this wine, but I don't think it is
one that I would drink.
Bernard de la
Giraudière later
told me that with greater age (i.e. older than the 82), Laurent-Perrier
champagnes can take on more of an almost riesling type character - which sounds
a bit weird!
Dinner Wines
A refreshing glass of Laurent-Perrier Brut NV
welcomed us into the Grill Room at the Connaught and a waiter circulating with a
tray of canapés (deep fried whitebait; olives and nuts; roast baby red peppers,
deep fried baby calamari rings and shrimps and a couple of other things too -
all very good and nothing fighting with the champagne. Time for whitebait
to make a comeback, I think.)
We were
introduced to Bernard de la
Giraudière, who said
a few words about Laurent-Perrier and introduced the wines and Angela Hartnett
appeared from below stairs to introduce the menu.
King
Prawns with Romesco sauce Laurent-Perrier Ultra Brut NV
Excellent grilled prawns with just
enough Romesco sauce to flavour and accentuate the prawns, without
masking them at all. Romesco sauce is not one of the most wine
friendly of sauces (tomato, garlic, almonds dominate), so combined with
a champagne I'd summed up as "pointless" earlier in the evening, this
was going to be interesting.
A
biscuity nose, intensely dry on the palate with lots of crisp white
pepper flavours. This is a better bottle than earlier (either that
or my palate's been assuaged by the canapés and all the previous
champagnes!), with good depth and plenty of flavour, but it is still
very very austere. It really comes into its own with the prawns
and the romesco sauce, which cut the austerity of the wine. A
marvellous, eye-opening combination.
Halibut
with baby leeks and artichokes and a light chicken jus infused with
white truffle oil Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle 'La Cuvée' NV, en magnum
Beautiful halibut, perfectly cooked.
Nice jus, the white truffle very very subtle. The dish was let
down a little by the artichokes, which could have done with a little
more care in their preparation.
John Cleary from L-P UK told me that the Grand Siècle current release in
magnum would be blended from the 1990, 1993 and 1995 vintages.
Quite a closed nose, though it's a little too cold. On its own,
it's very nice, pleasant and rounded easy drinking. The food
brought some lovely primary fruit flavours to the fore, especially on
the finish. Overall, much better on the finish and after (when it
displayed great length) than on the initial attack (even after it's had
time to warm up a little).
Roasted
veal fillet on braised celery with meat juices flavoured with
caramelised apple Laurent-Perrier Vintage 1990, en magnum
Excellent bit of meat; a fondant
potato and a segment of caramelised apple alongside the gently braised
celery. The caramelised apple infused into the gravy (sorry, jus)
was a rather interesting idea.
The L-P 1990 (55% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir, available en magnum from
everywine.co.uk for between £88 and £94 a magnum) had a gorgeous yeasty,
peachy nose, though the yeastiness blows off after about ten minutes.
Lovely round soft fruit on the palate. Absolutely à point.
Lovely soft depths of flavour and interest. Totally integrated.
An absolute joy to drink. I think it's possibly a bit more uni-dimensional
than the Grand Siècle (though that, I feel, should have more to it than
it has), but to my mind, it's none the worse for it.
I thought the Grand Siècle made a
marginally better match with the veal, but I think I was in a minority
(still - to the only thinly disguised chagrin of the sommelier - it
meant another glass of the Grand Siècle for me ... just to be sure and
purely in the interests of research, you understand!)
Millefeuille with a strawberry compote Laurent Perrier Grand Siècle Alexandra Rosé 1997
Four layers of light yet thick puff
pastry, a spot-on vanilla cream, a faultless strawberry compote
(apparently made from the last of the British strawberries) and another
layer of the vanilla cream.
The
Alexandra had a very light nose. Nice clean fruit; very dry, but
with a certain ripe richness. But very simple and lacking depth.
It did nothing for the millefeuille and the millefeuille did nothing for
it.
This
was an opportunity, organised by Bibendum, to taste through most of the range of
champagnes produced by Laurent Perrier, and then to taste a number of them again
over a fine dinner, hosted by the Vicomte de la Giraudière with a menu
especially devised and prepared by Angela Hartnett, protegée of Gordon Ramsay,
but very much her own woman. Angela launched Menu and The Grill Room at
the Connaught in October 2002 and gained her first Michelin Star in January
2004. She also received the ‘Best Newcomer Award’ at the Hotel and Restaurant
Awards.
