This is nothing short of thrilling Champagne, as is everything produced by this stunning, and totally off-the-radar producer in the exceptional Côte de Blancs cru of Vertus. Veuve Fourny & Fils was founded in the 1930’s as Champagne Albert Fourny, based around 8.5 hectares of vineyards, all in Vertus, that had been owned and managed by the family since 1865. In the 1950’s, when Albert passed away, the house was renamed Veuve Fourny. Since 1993, Albert’s grandsons Charles Henry and Emmanuel have been in charge.

The house owns 8.5 hectares of vineyards, and purchases fruit from another 4 hectares, which are for all intents and purposes controlled by them. This makes them a grower-producer in all but name, and their approach is much more that of a grower than of a negociant. All of the grapes in their wines come from Vertus, and they believe that that is one of the purposes of the house to produce wines that reflect the terroir of Vertus (this is a very unusual attitude in Champagne). Only the Cuvées (the light, first pressing of the grapes) are used for their base wines, which are fermented and aged in a combination of temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and oak barrels. After blending, bottling and secondary fermentation, the wines stay in the cellars for a minimum of 3 years before disgorgement (the minimum time for NV Champagne is 18 months).

Grande Reserve Brut is a blend of three vintages, and is made from roughly 20% Pinot Noir and 80% Chardonnay with about 40% of the blend coming from reserve wines. 10% of the base wine was aged in barrel. This wine has a gorgeous, tiny, even bead, with fresh, intriguing nose, and a rich, elegant mouth feel. It’s really exactly what I want in a glass of Champagne. This Champagne is a wonderful candidate for ageing, and will continue to get more complex through 2012, but again, it’s awfully good now, so I will have a hard time waiting.

The food to eat with this wine, is, well, just about anything. But as there is a bit of delicacy to this style, I wouldn’t have this with a steak. This is my favorite new (to me) Champagne that I have tried this year.

This is one of the wines from the December shipment of my Extraordinary Wine Club.  To see what that’s all about, click here.

I was at The Herbfarm last night, filling in as a Sommelier, and was totally blown away by the menu.  The food was beautiful, well-thought out, and delicious.  If you haven’t been to the restaurant since Keith Luce took over as Executive Chef last fall, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

The Herbfarm is a legendary restaurant in Woodinville, just outside of Seattle.   The restaurant is known for great food, sourced from their garden, their forager, and a network of local sources that is both incredibly deep and incredibly selective.  Their longtime chef, local food celebrity Jerry Traunfeld, left last year to open Poppy.   The new Chef, Keith Luce, has greatly expanded the mission of the farm - adding chickens (for eggs) and pigs (for charcuterie) - and the facilities and mission of the kitchen - with a wood burning oven, and programs to make their own butter and charcuterie.  Keith’s food is very different from Jerry’s, but also incredibly good. 

The restaurant is also a mecca for wine, with over 4,000 selections on the wine list, including the most extensive collection of Washington and Oregon Wines anywhere, and a great Sommelier team (Lisa Rongren, Michael Kominskey and Tysan Pierce).   Service is no slouch here either, characterized by attentive, personal touches and lots of attention.   The Herbfarm is the only AAA 5-Diamond restaurant in Washington State, and one of only 46 in the country.

The general consensus amongst wine experts (self-proclaimed and otherwise) is that for wine and food to go together, wine must be low in alcohol, high in acidity, moderate in oak, and not too overhwelming in flavor.  There is something to be said for this approach: acidity is almost always welcome, there is a tendancy to use too much oak in many wines which makes them hard to drink alone, much less with food, and alcohol can easily overwhelm more delicate foods.   But I disagree that these principles have a special, or even a tenuous, hold on holiday food: Christmas and Thanksgiving are the times to bring out the bruisers.

American holiday meals, particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas, are rarely made up of delicate foods.  Holiday meals tend to be rich, and many of the dishes are even sweet, and often heavily influenced by spices.    At Thanksgiving, I think about not only Turkey (okay, this is arguably a bit bland sometimes), but cranberries, sweet potatoes, and stuffing (often laced with onions, herbs and even chestnuts).  At Christmas, I think of ham or prime rib, maybe even a goose, and, again, rich often sweet side dishes.   With food like this, the worry isn’t that the food will be overwhelmed, but that it will overwhelm the wines. 

For rich, intensely-flavored foods, it is crucial that the wine is equally rich and flavorful: this can mean big fruit, big oak, and even big alcohol.   This is also a great approach to sweet foods.  Though it is traditional  to serve a wine that is slightly sweeter than the food it accompanies, sweet wines aren’t always appropriate for dinner (this is mostly a matter of modern taste, see the attached menu gilded-butterflies-menu-version-3), and both alcohol and oak can give wine a perception of sweetness that goes wonderfully with moderately sweet food.   In order for wines that are high in alcohol, oak, fruit or all of the above to taste good, they need acidity to balance them, so I do think that the acid is a necessary component here.

The following are some of my favorite general holiday pairings.  For a list of specific wines, see my list of recommendations from my appearance on King 5 TV with Tim Robinson on Monday, November 24th by clicking this link.  Viognier is a great white for holiday meals: it has loads of flavor, often high-alcohol, and the best have the acidity to balance.  Chardonnays also have a great place in these meals, both Burgundy and the big new world Chards: I’ll be drinking 95 Verget Meursault le Rougeots for T-day.   Grenache is also a great choice, particularly for Thanksgiving, as it often has a lighter red fruit flavor, lots of spice and smoke, and a serious dollop of richness from alcohol.  Syrah is a hit across the board, for the big black fruit, smokiness and spice, as well as the richness and oak that are such and important part of the best California, Washington, Australian and South African (don’t miss these) version.  Other whites that work include Torrontes, Pinot Gris and Smaragd Gruner Veltliners.  Other reds include: Malbec, Morvedre (also as Monastrell in Spain) and most Spanish Reds (not in the least because of the use of American Oak).

Some people argue that the holidays should be about drinking what you like and eating what you like, rather than food and wine pairing.  I’m not adverse to this notion, and I really do believe that good food and good wine will find a way to work together — I just think that sometimes picking which of the wines you like, and which of the foods you like can make both better.   

Oh yeah! one more thing: I didn’t mention Champagne.  It should go without saying that Champagne has a place at all meals, especially those around the holidays.

Happy Holidays for now. 

-Jake