Champagne Gardet

One area where it's possible to get confused is that the NV wines are labelled George Gardet (the son of the founder) whereas the vintage wines are labelled Charles Gardet (the founder). They are both from the same estate.

As a place to visit this one was great. Large, multi-storey cellars. Quite mechanised (lots of machines/gyropalettes) and we even got to see the bottling line in action. Annoyingly we just missed a round of disgorgement, which I've still never seen.

The Wines
1. Brut Tradition NV
Light, refreshing, toasty, biscuit and lemon. Soft mouthfeel. Good.

2. Selected Reserve NV
A bargain at 18.50EUR. This is their "English style" wine which is a blend of older vintages (2000 and 2001) and all made from reserve wine which has been sitting in oak. Very soft in the mouth. Silky, well balanced and with great length. This has a lot of depth and intensity of flavour. Ridiculously good for the price. They clearly have the English preference down to a T since our group was all over this.

3. Brut Special
Quite sharp on the palate. Neither one style nor another. I preferred the Selected Reserve.

4. Cuvee Charles Gardet 2000
23.50 EUR
Light, classy nose. Quite young tasting but some mushroom character coming through on the nose. Medium body, medium-high acid. Well balanced and with a good crisp finish. Excellent.

5. Rose Charles Gardet
25EUR
Salmon coloured and almost like a still pinot noir on the nose. Intense palate with plenty of red fruit but also some citrus (maybe more orange than lemon). Good length, very high quality.

This is a rose made by the saignee method rather than by blending red and white base wine together before secondary fermentation. Champagne is the only quality wine in Europe which is allowed to produce a rose by blending red and white wine. There is a good reason why most regions prohibit this - it is a short-cut and does not produce as good quality wine. I find it really quite surprising that Champagne of all regions (which makes wine which takes many years to produce and is often done in a very labour-intensive way) allows such a process. This Charles Gardet Rose is excellent and I wish more rose champagne was like this.