The colour is medium gold, with fine, medium-lasting bubbles. On the nose a bit over the top, with mainly tertiary notes imparted by the oak and some oxidation. In the mouth not very tasty and rather on the short side.
The Philipponnat family has been growing vines around Ay for five hundred years and manages the champagne house to these days. Philipponnat crafts its wines using exclusively first press juice from the finest grapes, mainly from Premier and Grand Cru plots. A portion of the wines is fermented and/or matured in casks.
Royale Réserve is a blend of 68% Pinot Noir, 29% Chardonnay and 3% Meunier grapes. This Champagne was made in 2017, with 30% of reserve wines aged in wooden barrels using the solera system to incorporate older wines. Dégorgement was made in July 2021. In that occasion, 8g of sugar per litre was added.
All these informations are clearly displayed on the bottle. From my point of view, they are details that should be clearly printed on every retro label, but unfortunately it is seldom the case.
I drunk this bottle to celebrate the fact that I run the KmVertical de Fully (kmvertical.ch), 1’000m of elevation gain over 1.92 km (the shortest in the world) in less than 1 hour (56’49”).
For this bottle I paid 47 CHF at ALIGRO in Sion. Unfortunately, the bottle had a problem that spoiled the experience.
Country: France
Region: Champagne
Grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier
Type: Sparkling
Vintage: N/A
Producer: Philipponnat
Price range: Premium (30-50 US$)
Pascal’s Enjoyment Index: 2/5