View 2013 Champagne Catalog - Michael Skurnik Wines

A. Margaine Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut, N.V. KAM-7
This wine’s attracted a small coterie of enthusiasts who like a more austere Champagne than I myself do. But why should
I block you? It’s 85% `07, 15% `06, no malo; 36% of the wine was in 4th-year barrique with battonage. Disgorged Nov.
2012. Crisp texture comes as no surprise, but the chalk-dusty gingery mid-palate is intriguing. It needs a year on the cork
to grow into the flavor beast it wants to be, but even now it’s snappy in its angular way.
A. Margaine “Cuvée Traditionelle” Brut, N.V. KAM-1
A. Margaine “Cuvée Traditionelle” Brut, N.V., 12/375ml KAM-1H
The assemblage is complex for a small domain! 36% 2010—35% 2009, 10% 2008, 10% 2007 and 9% 2004. 92-8
CH-PN. Disgorged Jan. 2013. This is really superb crafting: more reserve wine and a more liberal dosage to mitigate the
base-2010; it’s his usual meyer-lemon, freesia, osmanthus and chalk; sleek and flowery, with incisiveness and expression.
A. Margaine “Special Club” Brut, 2008 6/750ml j j KAM-408
This is completely stunning Champagne.
From three parcels: Brocot, Montmedy and Champs d’Enfer. 25% was done in wood, and 100% went through malo.
Disgorged Jan. 2013. The reputation of `08 will be made with the first sniff of a Champagne like this. An extraordinarily
feminine fine-grained wine, cool but not aloof, intense but contained, embedded chalkiness like the dust from a rockslide
in the finish; ginger and Asian pear, and a texture like meringue, in a hauntingly pretty form, lyric and lingering.
A. Margaine “Special Club” Brut, 2006, 3/1.5L j j KAM-406M
Disgorged Oct. 2012, this is amazingly open and generous for a magnum; again a flexible approach to RS is helpful, and
if you’re looking for a festive, polished and delicious large-format you needn’t keep forever, here it is. 74% Champs d’Enfer
(“Field of Hell”) which is 86 years old.
A. Margaine
A. Margaine Rosé Brut, N.V. j KAM-2
Disgorged Nov. 2012. 76% CH, 24% PN includes 11% still red of `08 and `09. The base wine is largely 2010, and this
continues his movement into a riper, fuller style for this wine; it’s now among our medium-bodied Rosés—and the quality
of the fruit flavor is amazing! Maybe even more amazing than the chalky wash on the finish, and the cherry-tobacco
smokiness further below.
Margaine “Cuvée Traditionelle” Demi-Sec, N.V.
Margaine “Cuvée Traditionelle” Demi-Sec, N.V., 12/375ml
KAM-5
KAM-5H
Hardly a fusillade-o-sucrose here, but instead a delicate sweetness. Let’s sneak in a bottle next time we go for dim-sum!
You feel flowers spring up on your palate.
It’s the same wine as the regular NV – none of this we of course use the crap for our demi-sec because its many flaws are masked
by the dreadful sweetness. Not at this address! It’s disgorged Jan. 2012, and you can use it as you would a Feinherb wine
from Germany – with savory food that also contains sweetness.
Montagne de Reims
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