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Fizzy water with style Part 3 · Sips, Suds, & Smokes

• 0:00
  > Announcer>On the next episode of Sips, suds and smokes.
• 0:03
  > Brent>Here are the champagnes we're going to be discussing today. From Alfred Gratian, we have the Alfred Gratian Brut Rose and the Alfred Gratian Brut champagne. We have Piper Heizek Cuvee Brut and Piper Heidzik Cuvee Brut Rose, we have the Champagne Ayala A18 Le Blanc de blanc. And from, uh, uh, Champagne Bolanger, we have the Bolanger PNTX 20 way. Yeah, it doesn't stink today.
• 0:34
  > Harm>So I just noticed that the, the, um, the ostetra, uh, caviar has the same greenish gray sheen as a champagne bottle. There you go. The perfect match.
• 0:46
  > Bob>It is.
• 0:47
  > Harm>It's gorgeous.
• 0:48
  > Bob>Yeah, it's a beautiful day.
• 0:50
  > Brent>It's always a good day to have champagne and caviar.
• 0:53
  > Announcer>We'll be right back after. Brought to you almost live from the dude in the basement studios. Uh, why? Because that's where the good stuff is. It sips, suds and smokes with your smoke and host the good old boys. And now it's sipping.
• 1:59
  > Brent>Oh, yes, it's sipping time again. Welcome to this episode where everything good in life is worth discussing. As always, we are the best thing on at
• 2:06
  2:00am um, or 1: 00am or whenever. But, uh,
• 2:13
  > Harm>with Netflix, I'm just starting to watch the boys last season. Finally.
• 2:17
  > Brent>Yeah, still haven't seen the last.
• 2:20
  > Harm>I know I need to watch season season five.
• 2:22
  > Brent>You know what you're doing.
• 2:23
  > Harm>What's Bob behind the times.
• 2:26
  > Brent>This is made man Bob. Joining me today are good old boy Harm.
• 2:30
  > Harm>Hey, thanks for having me, Bob. This is a great day to be in the, uh, basement because one of our friends brought caviar and good old
• 2:39
  > Brent>boy Justin the caviar. That would be.
• 2:41
  > Harm>That would be the caviar round. Yeah.
• 2:42
  > Bob>Pleasure to be here. And if you're going to drink fine champagne, pair with something nice. Love yourself.
• 2:48
  > Brent>And that's why we have. That's why we have caviar, because this is the champagne episode. So our sips episodes are all about wine, distilled spirits, tea, coffee, and anything else you can sip. And this is the champagne episode. So here are the champagnes we're going to be discussing today.
• 3:04
  > Brent>From Alfred Gratian, we have the Alfred Gratian Brut Rose and the Alfred Gratian, um, Brut champagne, we have Piper Heinzik Cuvee Brut and Piper Heinzik Cuvee Brut Rose, we have the Champagne Ayala A18 Le Blanc de blanc. And from Chateau, uh, Champagne Bolanger. We have the Bolanger PNTX 20 way. Yeah, it doesn't stink today.
• 3:32
  > Harm>So I just noticed that the, the uh, the Ostetra, uh, caviar.
• 3:38
  > Brent>Mhm.
• 3:39
  > Harm>Has the same greenish gray sheen as a champagne bottle. There you go. The perfect match.
• 3:43
  > Bob>It is.
• 3:44
  > Harm>This is gorgeous.
• 3:45
  > Bob>Yeah, it's a beautiful day.
• 3:47
  > Brent>It's always a good day to have champagne and caviar. Well, we're gonna go over our SIPs ratings. We rate all these on the SIPs rating of 1 to 5. So Justin, pick uh, out one of them and tell us about it.
• 4:00
  > Bob>I'm gonna go with three sips. This is um, interesting.
• 4:06
  > Brent>Um.
• 4:07
  > Bob>What was this again?
• 4:10
  > Harm>Interesting.
• 4:14
  > Brent>I'm not feeling that.
• 4:15
  > Harm>Yeah, I didn't, I didn't. That didn't touch.
• 4:17
  > Bob>Sounded more Israeli than French.
• 4:19
  > Harm>Yeah, no, it wasn't Israeli. It wasn't and it wasn't French. It was something weird. It was, it was, it was an Israeli hitman pretending to be French. There you go.
• 4:29
  > Brent>Ah, sounded me like Inspector Cluzo, but you know, I mean, what do I know?
• 4:33
  > Bob>Oh, that's French.
• 4:34
  > Brent>Yeah. So take that. Harm, why don't you tell us about our first, uh, champagne house.
• 4:40
  > Harm>Thanks, Bob. Our first champagne is the Alfred gratienne. Uh, in 1864, the same year that Abraham Lincoln won re election and the year the first Geneva Convention was signed, a 23 year old Alfred Gratienne set up his champagne business on the Rue Maurice Servo on the southeastern fringes of Epernay. To this day, they are at a house. They are a house that is guided by tradition in a region where some of the big names churn out millions of bottles per year. Gratian only makes about 300,000 and they're one of the very few houses still fermenting their wines in small oak barrels. It's slow, it's on hand, it's hands on, but it's tradition. The riddling and disgorgement, the two key steps in the champagne making process are also still entirely done by hand. I find that completely remarkable. That's. Who's heard of this? All of this is guided by, uh, the Jaeger family, who've been the cellar master dynasty at Gratian for four generations. Excuse me. From Jean, who took over in 1905, to Charles and Jean Pierre, and now, uh, Nicholas, who's led the seller since 2007. The offer, Gratian Brut Rose Champagne, non vintage, 12.5% ABV is 45% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot. Meunier 25, 20% Pinot Noir.
• 5:58
  > Harm>The dosage is 9 grams per liter, which is on the high end for, uh, Brute, I believe. Is it 9 to 12 for brute, maybe? No, no, it's. I'm sorry. What's the dosage for Brute?
• 6:09
  > Brent>I think it goes up to 12 to 12.
• 6:11
  > Harm>Yeah. So I guess it's not the high end. I'm, uh.
• 6:14
  > Harm>It just seems like that to me. I just. Anyway, I'm wrong. Primer fermentation is a 228 liter oak casks with no malolactic fermentation. It's aged for three years before release. The color is just rose petal pink. On the nose, uh, it's fresh berries, um, probably cherry. And there's, uh, a little bit of a citrusy note here. I'm gonna call it grapefruit, but I'm not sure if it is or not.
• 6:43
  > Harm>Uh, there's a yeasty quality to it on the nose.
• 6:46
  > Harm>And let's see, on the palate, really crisp, great acidity. Um, the. The. The dosage is showing for that nine grams. I feel like. It feels like more than nine grams to me. A little bit. A little bit sugary berry. There's a. A tiny bit of yeast coming out. Um, it's nice. And, um, maybe it's because we're having creme ah fraiche and. And.
• 7:14
  > Harm>And blini and caviar. I kind of taste that creme fraiche. It's really pairing very well. And the finish is pretty long. It's really cutting through all those fats that are in my mouth because the creme fraiche is very yeasty and fat. And of course, the caviar is pure fat, and it just cuts through all that and gives you a great taste. And then when you take your next bite of caviar, it tastes better. What do you think, Justin?
• 7:36
  > Bob>I think that this champagne is beautiful. It's got nice berries, fruits. It was a little soapy, but that fades off after time.
• 7:50
  > Harm>I didn't get the soapiness. It faded off.
• 7:52
  > Bob>More floral for me on the palette. It's like a nice acidity balance. Berries, brioche. Uh, the finish is really, really classy. I loved it.
• 8:09
  > Brent>What'd you think, Bob? Well, we met these folks in, uh, New York at the New York One Experience, and very lovely people and told them, you know, we'd really like to put this on the show, and I'm glad they sent it to us because it's. It's as good as I remember. I mean, it's not a producer, a Lot of people have heard of, um, I believe Freshenet owns them. But I was, I was impressed.
• 8:32
  > Harm>When did Freshenay buy them?
• 8:33
  > Brent>I don't know, but I know they own them now. But I was, I was, you know, I'm impressed with the quality here. I mean, it's a small house, but
• 8:41
  > Harm>only 300,000 bottles per year. That's, that's not tiny. It's not grower champagne. Yeah, but it's not the big boys making exact.
• 8:49
  > Brent>Exactly. But you know, and, and, and, and an excellent wine. I mean really well done. Um, got a beautiful salmon color on, uh, the nose. I'm getting cherries and pink grapefruit. There's a nice floral note to it. And on the palate. Mhm.
• 9:10
  > Brent>Very crisp. Got a great mouth feel to it. The acidity is there, but it's not overpowering. Red berries, just enough of sweetness there to interest you, but are not, not enough to be cloying. Really well done. I think, I think it was, I think it's an excellent.
• 9:28
  > Harm>It's not cloying, but I felt it was just a touch too sweet for me. I like dryer.
• 9:31
  > Brent>I, I tend to like dryer too. But I, you know, I'm happy with this. I'm, I'm very happy with this. So we're going to be giving the uh, Alfred Gration Brut Rose Champagne. A well deserved four sips.
• 9:44
  > Harm>That's classified.
• 9:47
  > Brent>So that's going to take us to our next offering from Alfred Gratian. We're going to have Justin tell us about that.
• 9:53
  > Bob>All right. And it disappeared.
• 10:02
  > Harm>Are you sure?
• 10:03
  > Bob>Alfred Gratian Brute Champagne, non vintage. 12 and a half percent alcohol by volume 52 Chardonnay, 30 Pinot Meunier, 18 Pinot Noir. It's 9 grams dosage primary fermentation in small. 228 liter oak cast. Sounds like pretty big with no malolactic fermentation. Aged four years. It's a beautiful light yellow color. It's got beautiful notes of fruit and cream. Bay leaves which really faded off after time.
• 10:46
  > Brent>I think he's too busy eating caviar to focus.
• 10:49
  > Bob>Followed by a touch of brioche. Finish is so fresh, so clean.
• 10:54
  > Brent>We'll be back. Hey. And we're back. Justin was just finishing up his thoughts on that, uh, Alfred Gratian.
• 11:06
  > Bob>What did you think, Herme?
• 11:08
  > Harm>Oh, you already finished. Okay, I did.
• 11:10
  > Brent>He said four words. He's done, man.
• 11:13
  > Harm>So it's, it's a pale golden deep, uh, straw color.
• 11:17
  > Harm>The nose is fresh pears. And um, Justin said bay Leaf that's dead on. I get a little smoky oak coming out. Uh, there's a gorgeous hint of salinity as well on the nose, on the palate, super crisp, um, juicy pears. You can taste the barrel thyme. Um, the salinity I just got a whiff of on the nose is there. Brings. It's mouth watering.
• 11:47
  > Harm>Absolutely mouth watering. It makes you salivate, cleanses your palate. It's elegant, it's got a good mouth feel. The finish lasts a good time and, uh, just fantastic. And I think, I think caviar makes everything taste better. But if you don't even have caviar, what I would pair this with is potato, uh, chips, popcorn with truffles, uh, truffle oil, popcorn or fried chicken. Anything oily, anything fatty. This champagne is going to be a perfect accompaniment. And in fact, I need more. Where's the bottle? Why are you, why are you looking
• 12:20
  > Brent>at Justin when you keep saying fatty? That's mean.
• 12:25
  > Harm>That was subliminal. I didn't mean to do it. What do you think, Bob?
• 12:28
  > Brent>I think it's lovely. I mean, it's really, really well put together. I get the pears, I get a little bit of brioche. I do get the bay leaf up in the top nose. Um, on the palate. I love the salinity on it. It's, it's, yeah, like you said, mouth watering. Uh, the, the salinity, really, Absolutely. It just brings that forth. Really well done. Very well balanced. Very, um, nice. Very nice champagne. Really, really nice. Um, and it's got a good finish. The finish stays with you for a while, whereas a lot of champagnes don't. So, um, yeah, I think this one's. This one's really lovely. So we're going to be, uh, giving the Alfred Gratian Brute Rose a well deserved four sips.
• 13:21
  > Harm>That's classified.
• 13:23
  > Brent>So that's going to take us to our next champagne.
• 13:27
  > Brent>So the history of Piper Heidzik goes all the way back to 1780, when a man named Florence Louis Heidzik settled in Rheims. He boldly, uh, presented his first cuvee to Queen Marie Antoinette, and she declared love at first sip.
• 13:44
  > Brent>Since then, Piper Heidzik has received royal Warrant Appointments from 14 royal and imperial courts. Fast forward a couple of centuries, and the house's love affair with glamour only deepened. Marilyn Monroe was one of its most famous supporters who used to say, I go to bed with a few drops of Chanel no. 5 and I wake up each morning with a glass of Piper Heidzik. It warms me up. And in 1933, Piper Heidzik became the first champagne house to appear on the big screen in a Laurel and Hardy film, no less. Currently led by cellar master Emilien Boutillet, uh, the youngest chef de cave to lead winemaking at a major.
• 14:20
  > Harm>It's cav In France for some reason. Excuse me, they speak weird in France.
• 14:25
  > Brent>So he's the youngest one to lead a major winemaking house. Major, uh, champagne house. Um, that brings us to our glass, which is the Piper Heidzik Cuvee Brut. This is non vintage, 12% ABV, 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Meunier and 20% Chardonnay with 25% reserve wine dosages. 9 grams per liter aged a minimum of 24 months on lees, minimum of 6 months after disgorgement. Oh, it's got a nice sort of honey straw color to it. Bright. Got a nice rim on the nose. White peaches, almonds. Um, absolutely correct.
• 15:12
  > Harm>White peaches. I just got some fresh. It's summertime now in Florida. We're recording. And I just got some white peaches from Publix the other day. Absolutely ripe and juicy. That's right here in that champagne.
• 15:23
  > Brent>Nice, nice. Brioche, not on the palate. Let's see, Almonds, m. Apples, pears. It's got a slight bit of minerality to it. Uh, not as much as the last one, uh, that we had from the other producer, but there's definitely a minerality there.
• 15:51
  > Harm>I barely get it in this one.
• 15:52
  > Brent>And it's got a, it's got a nice finish as well. It stays with you, so, you know, lovely. What'd you think, Jess?
• 15:59
  > Bob>I was very impressed with this. Um, I got beautiful clean nose with fruits. I got the almond notes. You got, um, I definitely got some brioche on the palette. Almost reminded me of like a pistachio croissant without the sweetness to it.
• 16:22
  > Bob>And the finish was pleasant and clean.
• 16:27
  > Brent>I enjoyed it. Hard to tell. Cheer up a little.
• 16:34
  > Brent>What did you think, Harm?
• 16:36
  > Harm>Um, it's solid champagne. This is great for the money. It's, it's a no brainer. It's, you know, inexpensive in the $50 range for champagne, which is, you know, that these days that's inexpensive for champagne. The white peach, the almonds, like Jackie, like you said, I got a little, I got a little bit of citrus on the nose as well. Um, there's a nuttiness coming, I think, from the oak, um, or maybe the yeast. I'm not sure the apples are there on the palate M. It's got a nice fine mousse. The bubbles are very refined. It's not Dom Perignon fine, but it's, it's there. They're not, you know, gross and, you know, over large.
• 17:15
  > Harm>They're. They're just very nice. It's a good, solid champagne. And the. My only qualm is the finish is not there. The finish is kind of short compared to the previous champagne we had.
• 17:28
  > Bob>Yeah.
• 17:28
  > Brent>And the other one was a little bit longer. But, I mean, there is. It doesn't just disappear.
• 17:32
  > Harm>It doesn't die off immediately. Yeah, there is a finish to it. It's nice, it's pleasant, it's clean, but it doesn't leave me wanting. Like, I need to have more. Another sip right away. Whereas the. The pre. The Gratian did.
• 17:44
  > Brent>And the remarkable thing is, is, you know, they make quite a bit of this too. Yeah, this is, this is a very large house. And, you know, they can make this kind of quality in that kind of quantity. That's. That's pretty impressive. So we're going to be, uh, rating the Piper Heidzik, uh, Cuvee Brut. Four sips.
• 18:03
  > Harm>That's classified. You're very generous, Bob.
• 18:07
  > Brent>So that takes us to our next one, and we're going to have Justin tell us about that one.
• 18:12
  > Bob>So we're going to talk about Piper Heidzik Cuvee Brut Rose. It's non vintage. It's 12% alcohol by volume. 50% Pinot Noir, includes 15% red wine, 25% Monier, 25% Chardonnay minimum, 25% reserve wines.
• 18:34
  > Bob>Dosage is 8 grams per liter. Age a minimum of 24 months on Le minimum three months after disgorgement. So the color is a nice pink rose color that you would expect from a rose. On the palette, it was crisp and an explosion of fruit flavors as well. And then the finish is just super pleasant. Mostly back palette. What did you think, Bob? Um,
• 19:14
  > Brent>hold on. I'm eating.
• 19:18
  > Harm>Well, let me tell you, what Bob eats is caviar.
• 19:21
  > Harm>Um, the nose. Um, I got that, uh. What did you say? Strawberry and grapefruit.
• 19:29
  > Bob>Said fruits.
• 19:30
  > Harm>You said fruits. Well, I got strawberry right away. Strawberry, white pepper, a little bit of grapefruit peel. There's a brioche note to it.
• 19:38
  > Harm>There's a bitterness on the palate that follows that grapefruit peel. And we have a commercial, so I have to let Bob take over. Hey.
• 19:50
  > Brent>And we're back and we were discussing the Piper Heidzik, Cuvee brut rose.
• 19:56
  > Harm>So I, I wasn't finished, but. Bob, you want to take over? We'll jump, um, back in.
• 20:00
  > Brent>Sure, why not? Um, on this one, a nice pale salmon color to it on the nose. Grapefruit, strawberry. A little bit of pastry note on the palate. Nice. A little bit less sweet than some of the others we've had.
• 20:25
  > Harm>See, I, I disagree with you there. I think even though it's 9 milligrams. Oh, uh, this is 8. 8 mil. 8 grams per liter. Um, I feel like this wine's a little flabby. It needs more sharp acidity. I think it could use more acidity because, like, well, Justin, Bob and I all disagreed about this wine. I'm rating it lower than they are. And, um, you know, I love Piper Heidsig. I think they make great wine. But, um, their mass produced stuff like these, the attention to detail is not there. I feel like, you know, where the, um, Alfred Gratian, smaller producer thought that far outclassed this rose.
• 21:10
  > Harm>And, you know, it's just, it's, it's not there.
• 21:12
  > Harm>It's not there for me. I got that. I was meant when I, when we went to commercial, I was mentioning the grapefruit bitterness. It's a little bit bitter on the palate. It's like that.
• 21:22
  > Harm>Um, then it's, it's. I don't know if it's from the yeast or the oak they're using, but it's not quite balanced for me. So now that I've interrupted you and you've had time for your caviar, what do you think?
• 21:33
  > Brent>Well, I won't call it bitter. Uh, there's definitely a tartness to it, for sure.
• 21:37
  > Harm>No, no, I'm talking about not tart. I'm talking about bitter.
• 21:40
  > Brent>No, I'm talking tart. I'm not getting any better.
• 21:42
  > Brent>The only bitter I get around here is you, but.
• 21:44
  > Harm>Yeah, I know. Uh, no, no, I'm salty today from the caviar.
• 21:47
  > Brent>It's all salty again. I, I think like you said, there's a big difference between a small producer and a large producer. But I think considering the quantity that they make.
• 21:57
  > Harm>Oh, no, it's not bad champagne.
• 21:58
  > Brent>It's just there's some quality there. I mean, doing it in that, in that volume is definitely hard.
• 22:05
  > Harm>Um, but what they make better champagne? Oh, they do vintage stuff. Oh, yeah. You know, this is.
• 22:10
  > Brent>Well, this is, this is, you know, this is the regular, regular entry level. I mean, they, they absolutely make, you know, much higher End champagne, as most houses do.
• 22:19
  > Harm>I mean, they always do reserves, so. Or tattoo cuvee.
• 22:24
  > Brent>Yeah, we're not. We're not drinking, you know, the tet de cuvet of any of these at this point, so we're not, uh. Yeah, not today. I mean, maybe we have next. We'd love to, you know, but, um, yeah, it's, you know, but well made, solid. Nothing, um, wrong with it. Very, um, well done. And like you said, $50, which sounds like a lot of money, but for.
• 22:48
  > Harm>For champagne these days.
• 22:49
  > Brent>Champagne these days, that's nothing.
• 22:51
  > Bob>Yeah. Think how far it came from France.
• 22:54
  > Harm>Yeah. Entry level here in France for.
• 22:56
  > Brent>For they, you know, it's, It's. It's. It's a great value for the money. 100% a great value for the money, so. Oh, lightning. And, uh, that's thunder.
• 23:09
  > Harm>Not lightning. See it.
• 23:10
  > Bob>That's the big guy's tasting notes.
• 23:12
  > Brent>Yeah, exactly.
• 23:13
  > Bob>He says thunder.
• 23:15
  > Harm>Well, Thor has weighed in. I wonder if. Does that.
• 23:18
  > Harm>I wonder if this picks up on the radio. I'll be interested to see. Well, because that was really loud. That scared us.
• 23:22
  > Brent>Let's see what the real big guy has to say. What do you say, big guy?
• 23:25
  > Harm>I would be devastated if you did not join me for at least one glass of fine champagne.
• 23:34
  > Brent>I mean, I'm sorry, Christopher Walken is the best.
• 23:36
  > Brent>Christopher Walken is 100% the best. So, you know, I mean, yeah, you didn't have any champagne with him, now, did you?
• 23:43
  > Bob>So there you go, you know, my business. Walk ins.
• 23:46
  > Bob>Accepted.
• 23:47
  > Brent>Yeah.
• 23:48
  > Bob>That's all I have to say.
• 23:51
  > Harm>Oh, uh, Lord.
• 23:52
  > Brent>Right in the toilet. But yeah, no, really, uh, you know, a nice. A very nice champagne. So we're going to be rating against your protest. We're going to be giving the Piper Hedzik cuve bro Forceps, where they are generous.
• 24:10
  > Harm>That's classified. They're generous. And I. I have qualms, but I don't have qualms with our next wine. So, uh, our next wine is the Champagne Ayala. The A18 Le Blanc de Blanc Champagne. Ayala was founded in 1860 after Edmond Ayala, the son of a Colombian diplomat, arrived in Champagne village of A to learn the art of winemaking. Meeting his true love there, he married into a local family and received the Chateau d' Aille in its magnificent vines as part of his wife's dowry.
• 24:42
  > Harm>They had dowries back then. Nice. The history of innovation Ayala goes far back to the 1865 when they launched the dry champagne at just 20 grams per liter of Sugar. That was their dry champagne.
• 24:56
  > Harm>Uh, back in the day, that was Kool Aid. Back in the day, champagne was super sweet. Then they made dry champagne, and. And because that became more popular, and then they said, you know what? People like less sugar. What are we gonna call? We overused dry. That's how we got brut. So brut champagne is drier than regular champagne, and you have extra brut, which is drier than that. And you have, um, zero sugar. A zero sugar added. Brute, uh, nature. So, anyway, so we've got this. This one. They started at 21 grams per liter per sugar.
• 25:33
  > Brent>Yeah.
• 25:34
  > Harm>And then that's Koolaid. Back then, they used to be over 150 grams.
• 25:38
  > Bob>I am also 21 grams per liter.
• 25:40
  > Harm>So they're basically Coca Cola.
• 25:43
  > Brent>And by the 1920s, when that diabetes monitor starts going up, when you hit 20 grams per liter.
• 25:47
  > Harm>Yeah, no, 150 grams per liter, dude. By the 1920s, the family reacquired Ayala. Um, I'm sorry, had become. Had become one of the most exported champagne maisons in the world. The Bollinger family acquired Ayala in 2005. The style centers on Chardonnay. Every wine in the Ayla range is built around a majority of Chardonnay, which gives our champagne the characteristics of freshness, uh, and fine bubbles and clean aromatic profile.
• 26:14
  > Harm>So the Ayala A18, Le Blanc de Blanc is a 2018 vintage, uh, champagne 12% ABV, 100% Chardonnay.
• 26:22
  > Harm>That's what Blanc de Blanc means. White from white, uh, from 35 acres of, uh, estate vineyards.
• 26:28
  > Harm>Micro verification of individual plots and stainless steel vats. And everything from crushed divinification, aging, riddling, and disgorgement is done at the Ayala Cellar. And the dosage here is 5 grams per liter, aged in 6 years on lees.
• 26:43
  > Harm>This is what I'm talking about, baby. This is what I want. So now we've got this beautiful pale straw color. The nose, super fresh. Dazzling acidity. It just tingles on the nose. Uh, we've got, um, white fruit, acacia flowers. Um, I mean, that white peach is here. There's a little bit of lemon. And, um. What is that? What is fruit? Come here.
• 27:12
  > Harm>Anyway, it's. It's just absolutely gorgeous. It's just sparkles. I mean, it's not just on the palate, on the tongue, it sparkles on the nose, it's so beautifully acidic. Uh, the palate, gorgeous minerality, chalky dries. The palate, the acidity and the chalky minerality work hand in hand. You get citrus notes you get salinity. And the finish lasts forever. This has like, almost a minute worth of finish. This is really great. Um, Justin, what do you think?
• 27:49
  > Bob>It's some fine champagne, my friend.
• 27:51
  > Harm>Fine champagne. It is fine.
• 27:55
  > Bob>It smells great, it tastes great, and it finishes great. What'd you think, Bob?
• 28:03
  > Brent>That's all he's got. Awesome.
• 28:06
  > Harm>And. And. And he spells great. G, R, A T. Yes, I do.
• 28:10
  > Bob>Yeah, that's right.
• 28:11
  > Brent>He must be from Alabama.
• 28:13
  > Harm>All right.
• 28:15
  > Brent>I think this is absolutely, um, on the nose. Very fresh, very bright, very alive. Um, it's got a beautiful, um, almost sparkly character to it.
• 28:32
  > Harm>Um, not almost, baby.
• 28:34
  > Brent>It's completely white. White flowers. Um, a beautiful fruitiness up front. Um, the pastry and brioche or underneath, in that. In that nose, on the palate. The minerality is there. You can taste the chalk soil. You can taste the sunshine. You can taste the grapes. Um, beautiful.
• 28:59
  > Harm>You, uh, taste the fossils?
• 29:00
  > Brent>Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the terroir comes through in this thing like nothing else. I mean, this is an extremely special bottle.
• 29:10
  > Harm>Um, I mean, it's not super expensive. It's like.
• 29:14
  > Harm>It's. It'll. It'll. If you bought this in my store, it'd run you about 100 bucks. 95. Something like that. A restaurant. 200. 250 in Miami. 300.
• 29:24
  > Harm>Because they're like that.
• 29:25
  > Announcer>Yeah.
• 29:25
  > Brent>Three to six. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, but so.
• 29:29
  > Harm>Well, it's affordable champagne and it's tastes like m. Three times the price.
• 29:34
  > Brent>Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We'll be back. Well, I made some seriously killer beef Burgundy on that week, I'll tell you. Yeah, Nice beef stew with a, you know, 170 bottle of cab.
• 29:48
  > Harm>We were talking during a commercial and Bob is talking about we have leftover wine from shows sometimes. And. Well, uh, every time because we're. We're sipping or spitting. We're not. Not always. We're not.
• 30:01
  > Bob>You might spit. I've never spit. That's good old boy, Justin.
• 30:04
  > Brent>Spitters or quitters?
• 30:05
  > Harm>Bitters or quitters? I got you. Well, that's a different context, Justin. Anyway, um, I. I'm have to work after this. I mean, we. The conceit is we're working at 2am but you know, we're not. It's the middle of the afternoon. I'm going back to work. But, um. So I'm spitting.
• 30:19
  > Bob>Yeah, you work in a liquor store,
• 30:21
  > Brent>but okay, go ahead.
• 30:22
  > Harm>Drinking is my job.
• 30:23
  > Brent>It's not like he's doing hard.
• 30:24
  > Harm>So Bob's talking about making beef bourguignon.
• 30:26
  > Harm>And so you Know what? Those days are great. But I'm gonna take some. I'm gonna take that $200 bottle of Ayala and make taco meat with it.
• 30:34
  > Brent>All right?
• 30:36
  > Harm>If I don't, let me know how it goes. No, that's horrible. I won't do that. I'll share it with my wife. My wife actually likes good wine. Maybe she'll cook something.
• 30:43
  > Brent>No, we did. We did a show.
• 30:45
  > Harm>Not maybe she'll cook and start ordering doordash.
• 30:47
  > Harm>Right?
• 30:47
  > Brent>And we had some. Some really amazing red wine, uh, in that episode. And everybody took a couple of bottles, and there was still several here. And I'm like, okay, beef burger. You know what time?
• 31:00
  > Harm>Yeah, yeah.
• 31:01
  > Brent>Normally it's the six dollar bottle from the bottom shelf at the grocery store, but this time it was a hell of a lot more.
• 31:06
  > Bob>Did the notes come through and.
• 31:08
  > Brent>Oh, uh, yeah, it was. It was. It was much better.
• 31:10
  > Brent>Oh, yeah, there you go.
• 31:11
  > Harm>If you.
• 31:12
  > Brent>Much better.
• 31:12
  > Bob>Every ingredient counts.
• 31:13
  > Harm>I tell people this all the time. If you're gonna cook with something, don't cook with something.
• 31:17
  > Harm>You wouldn't drink by itself.
• 31:18
  > Bob>Right.
• 31:19
  > Harm>If you wouldn't put it in your mouth. It's like buying grocery store wine to cook with sometimes.
• 31:24
  > Harm>Or just buying grocery wine is gross. Come to a nice, fine wine purveyor. We've got grocery store wine pricing on some items. They'll get you much better quality. If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it. So, Bob, we're giving the last, uh, uh, Ayala rating.
• 31:39
  > Brent>What more can you say? It's an absolutely beautiful blanc to blanc. It's so well done. It's absolutely delicious. And without a doubt, five sips.
• 31:48
  > Harm>Oh, my goodness.
• 31:49
  > Bob>Hala for Ayala.
• 31:51
  > Harm>100% agree there. Finally.
• 31:54
  > Brent>So that takes us to our last champagne. So our last champagne is from Bolanger. So Bolanger was founded in 1829 by Athanase de Vellemont, a French, by the way.
• 32:06
  > Harm>In America, it's called Bollinger.
• 32:08
  > Brent>Yeah. A French aristocrat who had inherited a magnificent state on the outskirts of AI. Joseph Bollinger, a German specialist in the selling of wines, champagnes, and Paul Renaud, a born and bred champenoire fascinated by the world of wine.
• 32:27
  > Brent>What makes it so distinctive starts in the vineyard. Their 180 hectares of vines are made up of 85% grand and premier Cruz and Pinot Noir dominates, making up over 60% of the plantings and always at least 60% of every blend. Bourger is the only remaining producer in the champagne Region with its own cooperage, maintaining a stock of around 3,000 oak barrels for fermenting its base wines, many of which are over 60 years old. And Bolanger stores as many as 800,000 magnums of Reserve wines used to contribute the intensity and complexity that is their signature style. So what we're going to be drinking here today.
• 33:06
  > Harm>That's crazy. That's too much.
• 33:07
  > Brent>Yeah, I could make a few of those go away. I'm just saying.
• 33:11
  > Harm>Yeah, we can help you with this. Although we're already having problems drinking the red wine after the rice show. And we're making taco meat now.
• 33:17
  > Brent>So we have the champagne Bolanger PNTX 20. This is. Is non vintage, 12.5% ABV, 100% Pinot Noir, hence the PN designation. Situated, uh, on the southwest slopes of the Montan de Rim. And the tox crew benefits from the unique exposure and soil blending, chalk and clay creating ideal conditions. The dosage is 7 grams per liter. PNTX 20. The base year is 2020, hence the 20. And the reserve wines, including 2008 and 2012, make up more than 25% of the blend. So on the color, beautiful, bright, sunshiny gold on the nose. God, that's good on the nose. It's just citrus white, peach, stone fruit, white flowers.
• 34:16
  > Harm>I'm getting, like, fresh linen drying in the sunshine.
• 34:20
  > Bob>I mean, fresh baked bread.
• 34:22
  > Harm>Yeah.
• 34:23
  > Brent>And on the palate, uh, there's a beautiful minerality. It's not overpowering, but it just coats your entire mouth. There's a little bit of a salinity to it.
• 34:33
  > Harm>I'm getting red cherry on the palate.
• 34:34
  > Brent>Yeah. There's cherries there, there's red stewed fruit there.
• 34:38
  > Harm>That's the 100% Pinot Noir shining through.
• 34:41
  > Brent>Yeah.
• 34:41
  > Harm>Even though the wine is a golden, it's a white wine in color. Because they're. When they do these, um, 100% Pinot Noir, you know, they're taking, uh, it's Blanc de Noir, what they call it.
• 34:51
  > Harm>So making. They're making white wine from red grapes.
• 34:53
  > Brent>Yeah.
• 34:54
  > Harm>There's no, there's no skin contact. There's very little skin contact. They take the skins out early, so the skin is where the color comes from, but the flesh of the fruit is white. And so the wine is white, but you get those still, you get those red fruit notes from the Pinot Noir. It's kind of disconcerting, right? It tastes almost like a light red wine, but it's totally white in the glass. It's a white wine.
• 35:15
  > Bob>I can see that.
• 35:16
  > Brent>It just tastes delicious. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's a very special bottle of champagne. Uh, there. What'd you think, Justin?
• 35:25
  > Bob>The minerality for this really sets it apart from any other wine that ever had. It's like intense but balanced minerality, the whole thing. The nose for me was like freshly baked croissants. The finish is still going. When I finished my last.
• 35:46
  > Harm>It's not just croissants. There's cherries there.
• 35:48
  > Harm>There's like a cherry Danish almost.
• 35:50
  > Bob>A lot of the fruits faded off by the last sip. So in the beginning, yes, there was balanced fruit and some baked goods. Now, probably three hours from.
• 36:03
  > Harm>Did the mics pick up the thunder? We just got more storm coming.
• 36:07
  > Bob>For me, it was just mostly bread
• 36:08
  > Harm>on the nose, but I'm getting more fruit than bread. I understand where you're coming from.
• 36:13
  > Bob>It's delicious.
• 36:14
  > Harm>It's absolutely delicious. Currants, raspberry, cherry, peaches, salinity. And I got, uh, some honey and ginger. Like if you hold the glass about a half inch away from your nose. Uh, that's ginger. You need your glasses empty, Justin.
• 36:31
  > Bob>No, there's a little in there.
• 36:33
  > Harm>Get some more here. So, yeah, there's some ginger notes, Ginger notes. There's honey notes, there's cherry notes. This is just so complex, so beautiful. I need more of this. Absolutely more.
• 36:45
  > Harm>This is just great, Bob. Um, do you get the ginger too, or no?
• 36:50
  > Brent>Yeah, just slight bit in the tip of the nose.
• 36:54
  > Harm>I had a, um, Mastija from Greece yesterday.
• 36:59
  > Harm>Further away from the nose, I get galangal, you know, that Thai ginger. I mean, it's not really ginger. It's a different herb or different root.
• 37:06
  > Harm>But galangal, this is more real ginger. This like fresh grated ginger and honey and then cherries.
• 37:16
  > Harm>It's just, it's fantastic.
• 37:17
  > Brent>Yeah.
• 37:18
  > Harm>And the acidity balances all that salinity as well. And then again, I've got. I've not been a pig and I've been stretching out my caviar. Yeah, I still have some. So I'll have some of this wine.
• 37:30
  > Brent>Yeah. Absolutely fantastic. So, I mean, what more can you say? It's. It's absolutely delicious. So what is. What does Ric Flair say? Ric Flair likes it.
• 37:41
  > Harm>So.
• 37:41
  > Bob>Yeah, he does.
• 37:43
  > Brent>But, uh, yeah, just such a great wine. So we're going to be giving The Bonger Champagne PN TX20A well deserved 5 sips.
• 37:55
  > Announcer>Oh, my.
• 37:55
  > Harm>Because we don't have sex. Yeah.
• 37:57
  > Brent>On this one we need six.
• 37:58
  > Announcer>Yeah.
• 38:00
  > Brent>So good. So incredible. Well, you know, you should be thanking me for coming and drinking wine all day.
• 38:08
  > Bob>Thank you, Bob.
• 38:09
  > Harm>Yeah, thank you. What about you? You're having a glass of wine? I'm not having a glass of wine. I'm having six. It's called a tasting, and it's classy.
• 38:17
  > Brent>There you go.
• 38:18
  > Bob>Exactly.
• 38:20
  > Harm>And you know what?
• 38:20
  > Bob>Exactly.
• 38:22
  > Harm>I get paid to do this.
• 38:23
  > Brent>Yeah, exactly. So, Yahoo.
• 38:27
  > Harm>We're lucky bastards. And Justin, thank you again for the caviar.
• 38:30
  > Bob>Oh, um, my pleasure. I think it, uh, just showcased the wine really nicely, man.
• 38:36
  > Brent>Thank you. To the folks that were kind enough to send the wine.
• 38:40
  > Harm>We take your. Your submissions seriously. Yep.
• 38:43
  > Harm>Yeah.
• 38:45
  > Brent>Well, for Sip, Suds and Smokes, this is Madman Bob reminding you life is too short to drink bad wine.
• 38:50
  > Brent>And fortunately, today, that was not a problem at all.
• 38:56
  > Announcer>We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you're listening to us online, do yourself a favor and tap. Just tap it in the subscribe button.
• 39:05
  > Harm>Give it a little tappy. Tap, tap, tap a room.
• 39:08
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• 39:35
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• 39:40
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• 39:51
  > Announcer>Come back, join us for another episode and keep on sipping.
• 40:05
  > Announcer>This has been a one tan hand production of Sips, Suds and Smokes, a program devoted to the appreciation of some of the finer slices of life from the dude in the basement Studios. Your host, the good old boys will see you all next time.