Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve - Champagne & Sparkling

Non-Vintage by Charles Heidsieck from Champagne, France - regions. Experience a fully developed wine, with a radiant bouquet that is captivating yet subtle. Although notes of fully ripe fruit, such as nectarines and cherry plums, are apparent initially, the finish reveals the wealth of the gourmet world, hinting at nougat, honey and cereal grains. This wine is remarkably smooth and generous on the palate. Three years of maturation have given it body and substance. As the wine opens up, it is full and intense with notes of warm bread blending harmoniously with discreet notes of ginger and coriander. The grapes used to produce this exquisite testament to winemaking are selected from the top crus in the Champagne region. 34% Pinot Noir, 33% Chardonnay, 33% Pinot Meunier.

Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label - Champagne & Sparkling

Non-Vintage by Veuve Clicquot from Champagne, France - regions. Number 25 on the Wine.com 100 of 2007! Clicquot's signature non-vintage Brut is loved all over the world for its crisp, full flavors, consistent quality and celebratory yellow label. This classical dry Champagne is a blend of two-thirds black grapes (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) for body, balanced with one-third Chardonnay for elegance. It has a fine persistent sparkle and golden Champagne color.

Dom Perignon 2000 - Champagne & Sparkling

Vintage by Dom Perignon from Champagne, France - regions. In the 17th century, Dom Pierre Perignon, the cellar master of the Abbey of Hautvillers in Epernay, developed a wine whose extraordinary quality would make him the spiritual father of Champagne and one of the great visionaries of the winemaking world. Dom Perignon longed to produce the best wine in the world and there is much written testimony to the success of Dom Perignon's wine with the most noble and wealthy personalities of the era. Dom Perignon was one of the very first producers to assemble wines starting with the grapes, as well as the first to master the production of white wines from red grapes to achieve a giant leap forward in quality. Made exclusively from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes from ten Grand Cru vineyards and from the oldest vines at the Abbey of Hautvillers, Dom Perignon is produced only in exceptional vintage years. Vintage 2000 Fresh, crystalline, and sharp, the first nose unveils an unusual dimension, an aquatic vegetal world with secret touches of white pepper and gardenia. The wine then reveals airy, gentle richness before exhaling peaty scents. On the palate, the attack bursts forth, and matures into a sensual fullness that winds around itself, like a tendril of foliage. Notes of aniseed and dried ginger linger on the skin of fruit (pear and mango), more textured than ripe. The finish gradually unfurls and then settles, smooth, mellow, all-encompassing. An indefinable je ne sais quoi, never upsetting the integrity of the wine, has worked its charm. Richard Geoffroy, Dom Perignon Chef de Cave

Deutz 2002 Blanc De Blancs - Champagne & Sparkling

Vintage by Deutz from Champagne, France - regions. The color is fine and bright, showing a pale golden hue with bronze tinges. A forward nose shows deliciously ripe aromas. Hints of flowers mingle with the main aromas of fresh pastry. The first impression is clear-cut, and the wine continues, fresh and lively, in an elegant mode. The flavors are very pure and evoke white peaches, small berry fruit and grapefruit. The finishing notes are lingering with a distinctly mineral edge. This is a wine to be drunk now for those who like Chardonnay, but it also can be cellared for a while. This makes an ideal aperitif drink. It would also make a good match for dishes such as marinated salmon and scallops, roquette salad with sea-food, sole cooked with citrus fruit and a light vanilla sauce, oysters, or sushi.

How to Taste Wine

Professional wine tasters do not treat the process casually. Maybe it's not even fun at times, since they have to dissect, in minutest detail, every sip of every wine. It's their job. You, on the other hand, are not accountable to anybody but yourself. The degree of seriousness aside, there are some key factors one looks for in assessing wine. You certainly don't have to like what is considered excellent wine, but you should have an appreciation for why it is considered such. Also, it makes drinking better wines a much deeper, richer experience.

There are several kinds of tasting. One is for people who barely know the difference between red and white - uncommon but not unheard of. In this case, choose five bottles, a light young red, a mature red, a dry white, a sweet white, and a port or sherry. For a more discerning group, choose five different varietals, like a Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah, to illuminate the distinct differences in so-called "red" wines. Another method might be to select Chardonnays from as many different growing regions as is practical (include several countries and states) to determine what the "baseline Chardonnay" taste is, and how that taste can vary depending upon where it's grown. This is a delightful way to explore a single varietal in depth.

For the more serious taster there are horizontal and vertical tastings. Horizontal would be, for example, ten Cabernets from the same year but different wineries; vertical means all the Cabernets are from different years. This give insight as to what constitutes an excellent Cabernet - again, in your opinion.

You can taste blind -- without seeing the labels -- or in full view of the facts. Blind tasting insures you are not swayed by a wine's reputation. You'll detect what you're supposed to detect, not what you think you're supposed to detect. In blind tasting competitions, the object is to guess correctly the wine and the vintage, and the best team wins. In competitive tastings wine against wine, such as pitting Cabernets from California against Bordeaux from France, the tasting is done blind to insure a fair out come - so the more established reputation of the Bordeaux region doesn't wield more clout than it deserves to.

When several wines are being tasted, the order should be youngest and lightest wines first followed by older more full-bodied ones. To reverse this order is to overwhelm any subtleties a younger, lighter wine might have accrued and is not a fair assessment.

And what are you looking for in evaluating wine? Appearance first, then smell, impression in the mouth, total flavor in the mouth, and aftertaste.