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Grower Champagne André Clouet, Cuvée 1911, Grand Cru Brut

Champagne, France NV (750mL)
$89.00
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Grower Champagne André Clouet, Cuvée 1911, Grand Cru Brut

Once, sometimes twice a year, we manage to get our hands on some of André Clouet’s tête de cuvée Champagne, “Cuvée 1911.” For us it’s like seeing a supermoon, or scoring reservations at some impossible-to-get-into restaurant—an occasion worthy of advanced planning and giddy excitement.
As our longtime subscribers are aware, Clouet is one of the greatest ‘grower-producers’ in Champagne, a house known for bold, expressive, Pinot Noir-driven Champagnes from the Grand Cru villages of Bouzy and Ambonnay. Cuvée 1911 is their top-of-the-line offering—an ever-evolving blend, usually of three vintages, of the estate’s best reserve wines. This is as muscular and luxurious as Champagne gets, yet it remains priced at the low end of the tête de cuvée spectrum. Only 1,911 bottles are released annually (a number that commemorates an important year in the estate’s long history), and our little piece of that total is going to disappear fast; grab some before it disappears for another year!
What you’re getting in “Cuvée 1911” is a little piece of performance art in the form of a bottle of wine. Winemaker Jean-François Clouet, who was born in Bouzy and lives in the 18th century village house where the Clouet wines are cellared, is eccentric and a bit of a showman; there’s no specific formula behind 1911, but instead a periodic exploration of older reserve wines and the assembly of a blend according to Jean-François’ whims. According to Clouet’s California importer, 50% of the wine in this release is from 2002, with the balance coming from ’01 & ’03. It spent more than 6 years (!) aging on its lees and was disgorged in early 2016, getting a low 6 grams/liter of dosage.

Clouet farms about 20 acres of vines, most of them in Bouzy, the most famous Grand Cru village in Champagne for Pinot Noir. Bouzy is nestled in a slight dip in the hillside that protects it from harsh winds and delivers slightly warmer temperatures, producing Pinot of exceptional concentration. All of Clouet’s wines are 100% Pinot Noir, and 1911 is sourced from 10 of their best parcels in Bouzy, producing a wine of deep concentration, viscosity, and intense minerality. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Clouet makes a great Côteaux Champenois red still wine from Pinot Noir, but that’s even harder to find than the 1911!

The Clouets were once the official printers to Louis XV’s Royal Court at Versailles, hence the beauty of this bottle’s label. What’s inside, meanwhile, is just as dazzling: The wine has a dense golden core that moves to green and gold reflections on the rim. Aromas leap from the glass with a bouquet of fresh baked brioche, honeysuckle, redcurrant, dried pineapple, orange peel, preserved lemon, honey and white flowers. The concentrated and full palate evolves to deliver more presence of red fruits alongside lemon curd, hazelnut and brioche. To allow the magnificent aromatics to really blossom, avoid serving 1911 in a narrow, traditional Champagne flute. Opt instead for a white wine stem or a more open, tulip- shaped Champagne stem. 

I also think temperature is important here: Serve it just below cellar temperature, about 50F, and be bold when pairing. It can most definitely handle heartier dishes, including main courses, and I’m going to get a little crazy and suggest you pit its depth and mineral savor against some rare (or raw!) beef. Here’s a great guide to making steak tartare at home, and don’t be surprised if this is your most memorable wine/food pairing of the year. Cheers!
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Country
France
Region
Champagne
Sub-Region
FranceBouzy
Soil
Chalk
Farming
Organic
Blend
100% Pinot Noir
Alcohol
12.0
OAK
None
TEMP.
50
Glassware
All Purpose White Stem or Open Mouth Champagne Flute
Drinking
Now-2025
Pairing
Steak Tartare

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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