Description
#7. Champagne Yves Louvet “Réserve de Théophile” Brut NV. New to TOB.
75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay.
I visited winemaker Frédéric “Fred” Louvet at his stunning estate on the Montagne de Reims in February this year. Fred’s side hustle is crushing grapes for Champagne Bollinger (to whom he also sells a lot of grapes) and so he has a truly massive and technologically cutting edge press (two of them, actually, worth hundreds of thousands of euros each) and a fantastic winemaking set-up in his glorious 19th century barns.
The Réserve de Théophile is the product of an extremely long ageing process in vat, barrel (like Bollinger), and bottle, and this gives rise to wonderful aromatic complexity, offering toasted nuts, baking bread, cocoa, caramel, and citrus peel notes, while the palate is still vivacious, bubbly, and an absolute delight to drink. This is a non-vintage wine (in other words it is a blend of wine from multiple years) but the result is exactly what you would expect of vintage Champagne from its honey-bronze hue through to its indulgent aromatic richness.
This was the last wine I tasted with Fred on a sunny winter afternoon with the dazzling amber light shining through the windows of his tasting room and into my glass, the little bubbles flashing in the glass, and it is a memory and an experience I hope you will be able to share with me through this delectable Champagne.
Drink now to 2029.
12.5% ABV
Post-arrival price will be $93.95
Today’s pre-departure price is $68.95
This wine is part of the shipment scheduled to arrive in October/November. Dispatch to you will be organised as soon as it has cleared Australian customs.
