Benoit Lahaye, Bouzy Naturessence

Clear salmon pink colour. Red fruity bouquet with hints of marzipan. Creamy palate, present bubbles, strawberry, grapefruit, a bit of rhubarb and a dark bitter tone. Persistent finish.

great color, well balanced, I like nose of red fruits , raspberry with hont of citrus

Quercus Shines Again: Our Second Evening at Uberto (Gay, GA) : Second visit to Uberto at World of Quercus. A 100% organic and biodynamic rosé champagne made entirely from Pinot Noir. Lovely floral notes on both nose and palate with a refreshing character. While quite delicious, the finish was somewhat shorter than expected. Created through the maceration method, explaining its vibrant color. Served alongside the 2008 Rare Champagne with Chef Ryan's opening bites: beef tartare, juniper-cured venison bresaola, compressed glazed …

Charming pink fizz, with excellent balance and moreishly tangy. More please!

Dsg 11/2022. Short maceration in whole clusters Floral nose then tangy red fruits, iodized and toasted. The palate is quite brutal with great freshness. The juice is still primary, with a duo of tangy red fruits and salinity. This is a very particular rosé de saignée, built on a fairly high acidity but well coated by the quality of the juice which maintains a good balance. The finish is just as particular, very tannic and wild with a nice long …

Disgorgement 12/23. Still very primal and rough. Nevertheless the juice is enormous. Full mouthfeel and almost oily texture. Very pleasant bitterness. Compact and precise. Light, clean and very long. Great and will only getting better.

Dsg 10/2012. Without SO2. 0 dosage. 50% chardonnay and 50% pinot noir After 2 experiences in 2009 with very evolved wines (Chartogne and Bérêche) I wanted to open a “natural” bottle, without dosage or addition of SO2 in order to have some certainty about the evolution of the vintage. I was expecting a fairly evolved champagne given the 2 previous experiences on high-end estates. Very lively nose, like effervescence, it is herbaceous, as vinous as it is chalky. Precise mouth, …

2009 vintage

Rose, white peach, fine bead, soft

Glorious deep crimson. Not scrutinised too closely given it was drunk at a family gathering, but we all enjoyed the tangy raspberry fruit on offer here. Very easy to drink, went well with cream tea.

Disgorged October 2018, this was an older release Zachys had recently for some reason. Classic muddled ripe strawberry, kinky spices, a hint of amarena cherry. Perhaps not the most concentrated version of this, but just love the unusual flavors this wine delivers.

E&R Champagne night (E&R Wines, Portland OR) : The nose is fresh and complex with red berries, bright red cherries, rose petals, saline, peaches, nectarines, toasty notes, biscuits, vanilla, and some pears. There is good depth and style here as it really leans into the red fruits over autolytics. The Medium bodied feel is balanced and fresh with tart, high acidity. The acidity is really refreshing and provides a great spine while the red fruits on the nose are expressive …

2023 disgorgement. Red coppery colour. Strawberries on the nose. Medium to full bodied, dry, with a lovely rounded mouthfeel, and more strawberries on the palate but not at all sweet. Nicely balanced with some persistence on the finish. Overall - v good.

2020 disgorgement. No detailed note as drunk at a party... it was obvious, though, that this remains an excellent wine, soft, peachy and vivacious. So drinkable, yet with good acidity and structure to keep things sufficiently serious.

I didn't get the disgorgement date on this, but it was a purchase right off the shelf. The nose is intriguing with strawberries, toast, vanilla beans, herbs, creams, citrus notes, peaches, pears, red apples, and biscuits. There is a juiciness to the fruit that is fresh as opposed to candied. The Medium bodied feel is balanced and deft with tart, high acid. There is good length to the finish, though it does lack a little bit of depth. This is …

10/2018 disgorgement. Not quite the tension of some of Lahaye's other bottles, but an enjoyable rose.

Disgorged October 2019. 100% Pinot Noir. Wow. Grabbed this on a whim from the cellar to go with Thai food. Just beautiful aromatics, which made me stop, pause and really appreciate the beautiful perfume. Floral, with stone fruit pit. Really hard to describe but this is as good as I can narrate it. Just pure perfume with a spice. The palate is peach flesh, cherry pit , strawberry and licorice. Plenty of juicy, concentrated texture with a peach skin finish. …

Disgorged January 2022. Paler and fainter in its aromatics and flavors than is typical; this feels like the usual wine turned down to a volume of 3. A new release, and alas it feels like a rather weak iteration of this usually delicious wine. Or perhaps it just came off a container ship and needs time to rest.

50/50 pinot noir and chardonnay, disgorged 07/2015. No indication of base vintage, but likely 2012 assuming this gets around 2 years on the lees. This feels driven by its pinot noir portion, with aromatics of raspberry coulis and some yellow fruits. There's also some brassy minerality on display, with plenty of fruit sweetness but nothing out of balance. Leftovers were just a delight on day 2.

Similar thoughts to the March 2022 bottle, though without any feeling of pinchedness. Lots of tart fruit, glorious colour, well-balanced and fun.

Disgorged January 2021. Utterly delicious and a fine rendition of this wine, consistently one of my favorite roses.

Euro Trip 2022; 7/28/2022-8/3/2022 (Copenhagen, Paris) : Disgorged 11/2020, dosage: "extra-brut" This champagne had a wonderful nose of red-fruit jam, and the palate followed similarly. There was a creamy texture with a fine mousse, and while this was a tiny bit simple, it was purely hedonistic.

Felt a tad pinched and juvenile cf the bottle I had in 2021 (didn't see the DG date of this one though), but still extremely good, with a beautiful colour, lots of raspberry and rhubarb fruit and an overall drinkability despite its relative tartness. Refreshing and fun.

Yum

Seems old and tired... I would drink up based on this showing.

2009 vintage

Goloso champagne, fresco profumato, sapido con bolla fine. Piaciuto, ha bisogno ancora di un anno di bottiglia per migliorare.

100% PN from Bouzy terroir. Low 4gr/l dosage. 80% oak ageing, malo fermentation. Disgorged Oct ‘20. Pale gold yellow and very fine mousse. Toasty, lemon zest, ripe red fruit and yellow apple on the nose. Mineral, complex and medium bodied. Long finish. Great wine expressing Bouzy terroir. Lahaye (w Pierre Paillard and George Remy) is the top here!

2017 vintage

Disgorged March 2019. Stunning to look at and frankly delicious. The nose showed the yeastiness of a Champagne and the earthiness of a Bourgogne. The palate was a lot fruitier, with plenty of strawberry (by turns unripe and creamy) and enough minerality to keep things serious. The finish comes in waves and lingers for quite a while. Whole bottle depleted far too quickly...

Guzzle. Another lovely bottle of this, just what the doctor ordered on a 92F October day.

Fruto de la maceración corta de racimos enteros de pinot noir. Ciranza con sus lías en fudres y tinajas. Extra brut. Consta la fecha del degüelle: 12/2019. Trabajan en ecológico y en biodinámico. Color fresa. Nariz bien definida, de perfil frutal, sobre todo con notas de fruta roja, algún toque de mantequilla y un ligero fondo de bollería. En boca resulta fresco, fluido, la fruta aparece más bien ácida, burbuja pequeña y abundante y notable persistencia.

Good yellow fruit. Some yeastiness, but not at all overpowering or oxidative in nature. Nicely balanced with good acidity.

Disgorged October, 2014. 50/50 pinot noir and chardonnay aged 9 months in barrels. Pleasant and stylish, with pleasantly developed and slightly oxidative palate. Palate is fairly tight though, and quite dry, feels like extra brut.

Was interested to try the 2009 from what is generally my favorite no-dosage Champagne. At first sip it seemed richer and maybe less precise than earlier vintages but was full and continued to expand and develop layers of complexity through the finish. Great Champagne and was a fine match with various foods at Pings.

2009 vintage

On day 1 this showed a prototypical austere brut nature expression: lacking fruit and depth, but with loads of interesting mineralogic nuance. This is a level down from a bottle a couple of years ago. The last third of the bottle on day 3 was mind-bogglingly good. If I had more (alas) I'd hold 2-3 years before opening another.

2009 vintage

No formal notes, tasty and good fruit.

Delicious. Nice energy. Tart red berry fruit. Meyer lemon notes, nutty finish. Definitely pinot dominate. A bottle bought in early 2012 so not sure of base years but likely 2007/2008 or so. Aged surprisingly well.

Another new champagne experience�always fun! Dark yellow, which made us think more Pinot Noir until we checked the blend - 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay. Dosage of 4 g/l (�Extra Brut�). Nine months in barrels gives us toasty-oaky. Aromas of lively, fresh berries, hints of lemon, orange, cherries and rich red apples. We think the Chardonnay must be hiding behind the dark red dress�shy, no doubt! Palate, yet again, shouting Pinot Noir, no real evidence of Chardonnay, some savoury …

Really nice stuff. Great nose. Toasty with some brioche on the palate. Nice energy. Really enjoyed.

Disgorged 1/2015, this was enjoyed alongside the 2005 Eric Rodez Mill�sime Brut. Similarly to the Rodez this one has a super rich, generous nose of red apple and tangerine fruit and delicious spiciness. It has a big, dense mousse and a really vinous mouthfeel underneath. Full bodied but not heavy, its energy levels are through the roof. Almost drinking like a red wine, it is packed with beautifully thick, bright red fruit (apple and cherry) and some very tasty bitter …

Got this for K's pre-birthday dinner drinks time. Was excited as A had recommended it and she knows our style. Was a bit disappointed. Medium complexity with very overt notes of lemon. Beautiful little bubbles and nice on the nose though. Lemon tended to dominate the flavor profile. Not much tastiness. Wouldn't recommend for the price.

Help this one and developed beautifully. The oak integrated and the wine shows creamy but very detailed and complex, with yellow fruit and gingery spice notes, along with vanilla and lemon tones. The balance is great, the mouth feel delicate and elegant, and finish perfumed and long. Excellent.

This was not far behind the 2009 Le Jardin de la Grosse Pierre in terms of enjoyment. The bottle's back label states that it was bottled in 2011 and disgorged in 09/13. (So probably 2009 base vintage?) Like the Grosse Pierre, this was more bracing than other wines I've had from Lahaye. Lemony with some gala apple at first. After an hour or so, a striking tilleul note developed first on the palate then the nose. Chalkier toward the end, …

50% pinot noir, 50% chardonnay, zero dosage, zero added SO2. This was astonishingly good. Intoxicating saline, brassy mineral, dried herb aromatic, reminiscent of good fino but unlike any Champagne I've drunk. Palate follows the nose with remarkable precision and mineral expression, with a lovely subtle richness. Absolutely love this. Somehow the leftovers were even better the next night. Intensely mineral, truly memorable. Perhaps a touch more flesh might be nice but no complaints. Among my favorite Champagnes drunk this year.

2009 vintage

From magnum. Forward nose with a lot going on: bright apple, pear, creamy-chalky, ginger, lemon, minerals, spice. Very bright and alive but it has that chalky creaminess that gives the nose weight. Similar on the palate: crisp, alive, more citrus and ginger up front. Spicy with good minerality. Shows more pear-ripeness on the end-middle. Finish is good not great, with the ripeness showing there also. Nose - 5.5/6, Palate - 5/6, Finish - 4.5/6, Je ne Sais Quoi - 1.5/2 …

Champagne : Austero, chiuso, scuro, frutto rosso, terra. Bocca potente, tagliente, si sente la mancanza della malolattica ma l'acidit� � molto ben integrata con il resto. Arriva tutto insieme come un cazzotto sul mento per poi lasciare una una lunga scia complessa ed ad altissimo volume. Molto buono.

Creamy, elegant, perfumed - lemon zest and vanilla, which might be oak derived. The wine carries a strong oak signature when first opened, but is lovely nonetheless. Great focus and intensity, and especially on day two, a fineness and length that are compelling. Perhaps this is a wine that wants some cellar time.

5th Somewhat Annual Blind Bubbly Dinner (Riverpark, NYC) : Wow, right from the first sniff to the last sip, this was absolutely gorgeous. Lemony minerals filled the air above the liquid, with a crystalline purity that made me want to inject this straight into my veins. Superbly elegant and austere but pretty at the same time, with bracingly tart acidity making it almost painful without food, ending with a long cleansing finish. Then again, I like my Champagnes painful, so …

The first impression is of a very exclusive champagne with perfect balance of oak treatment and fruit. Also the minerality shines through in a wonderful way. Velvety and long aftertaste. 92+

This is really great. I loved the power of Bouzy with so much focus, elegance (yes elegance from Bouzy) and linearity on the palate. Good minerality and great acidity. I really enjoyed this champagne.

Apples (a lot), pears. Fresh. Lots of acid. Would prefer it to be more round and nuanced.

Didn't take any notes, but it was an excellent champagne: pure, elegant and powerful. Fully recommended

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Benoit Lahaye, Bouzy Naturessence

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