View 2013 Champagne Catalog - Michael Skurnik Wines

Varnier-Fannière “Cuvée de Jean Fannière Origine” Extra Brut, N.V. ( j ) KVF-5
An homage to the style of wine his grandfather might have made, and the driest wine in the range. 40% Cramant, 40%
Avize and 20% Oger, half-half `07-`08, disgorged December 2012. An incisive laser-focused fragrance in the green herb
mint family; the `08 floweriness comes on; the palate is salty and a little stock-like as usual; it needs time on the cork to
moderate its pointedness, but as it always has, I’m sure it will again.
Varnier-Fannière Grand Cru Brut, N.V. j KVF-1
As always one-third each Avize-Cramant-Oger, half-half `09-`10, and as always this excels from pure fruit, floral focus and
the loveliest balance! It’s just charming and tasty; why shouldn’t a wine make you happy? This doesn’t pander; it’s digitally
focused and classy and refined, but it has nothing to prove —especially “Look how dry I can be!” It only wants to ease
your way into satisfaction, and express the silken chalky charm of the Côte des Blancs.
Varnier Fannière Rosé Brut, N.V. ( j ) KVF-4
Disg Nov. ‘12. A complex blend and a departure from its predecessors; 30% ‘08, 40% ‘09 and 30% ‘10, with 8% still
Pinot Noir from a fine grower in Ambonnay named Dethune, on a base of Avize and Cramant. It’s a lot more vinous than
before, less strawberry parfait and more ripe tomato, an excellent savory Rosé (though I’ll miss the old delicate flowery
girlish one) with clarity and breed abounding, like an ether of Burgundy.
Varnier-Fannière
Côte des Blancs
Varnier-Fannière “Cuvée Saint-Denis” Brut, N.V. j j KVF-2
This has an outstanding Grand Cru fragrance of pure graphite and apple; it’s an exegesis of terroir, and as great as it’s ever
been. And it’s nearing its conclusion, this specific cuvée, because the vineyard needs re-planting and so there’ll be just three
more years, after which it will become a mélange of old vineyards from all three communes.
Varnier Fannière “Grand Vintage” Brut, 2006 j j KVF-306
Avize and Cramant. Tiny quantity, stunning quality. From selected lots with the highest acidity – in this case 5.2g/l with
pH of 3.0 – the wine is almost extremely expressive, of `06’s laser-chalk, of super-mineral parcels, but all with a thicker
mid-palate; it’s winsome and astonishingly hard to spit and at the same time it’s seethingly spicy; a potion of jasmine just
before the end; this is a virtuosic high-wire balance between seriousness and seductiveness.
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