Henriot, Reserve Baron Philippe de Rothschild Brut

Opened and then poured and had a bit of mustiness to start but then it was a nice old champagne with a good bit of nuttiness and more contemplation required. Continued to get better through the evening. Fewer bubbles but lots of caramel notes.

As one person at dinner said this is almost like dessert in champagne form. Definitely all of the caramel and I suspect this is not in the style of today which is all zero dosage - there is definitely dosage here. And it's aged quite well. Very enjoyable. We always drink through aged champagne so fast and this lot seems to be no different.

Return to Piemonte!; 11/25/2021-12/4/2021 (Castello di Sinio, Alba, other various locations) : You must really like older champagne to like this bottle. Is is caramel and slightly oxidized and a bit heavier in style. I generally do but I found myself for a moment readjusting since we were drinking this as a pre-dinner sipper and it has been let’s say a busy few days of eating and drinking and so the lightness of younger champagne might have been a bit …