Unveiling the newest batch of Clouet’s golden Grand Cru has become an annual tradition over the years, but with all things great, there’s a caveat: this rarefied 1,911-bottle annual production has and will always remain constant despite the swell of global demand. Typically, we cross our fingers and wait in anticipation for the newest shipment to arrive, but our fierce six-year loyalty to the brand seems to have unlocked a bit of preferential treatment this time around. Thanks to the generosity of Clouet’s importer, a small parcel of the newest disgorgement was specifically earmarked for us, directly from the cellar. For all newcomers, read on to see why we geek out over this luxurious, extremely limited Grand Cru—everyone else, you know the drill!
Every year, we giddily uncork one of these ornate bottles and this time around Jean-François Clouet’s handwritten note showed a disgorgement date of June 2020 and the bottle number as 342. As longtime subscribers know, André Clouet is among our favorite grower-producers in all of Champagne and “Cuvée 1911” is their top-of-the-line offering. It’s an ever-evolving, exceedingly long-aged blend of the fabled 2008 vintage and an old perpetual reserve from their top 10 Grand Cru Bouzy parcels. This is as intense, precise, and serious as Champagne gets, yet in a deep sea of triple-digit labels, its price comfortably remains in the shallow end. Put simply, between the blend of old vintages, length of aging, and judicious dosage, this rare prestige cuvée is a siren call for luxury Champagne connoisseurs. With us generously offering up to 12 per person today—we’ve never had the quantity to do such a thing!—our minuscule allocation will evaporate in no time at all.
The Clouet family first found the spotlight after becoming the official printers for the Royal Court at Versailles in the mid-18th century (hence the beauty of their wine labels). Their estate in Bouzy, which current owner Jean-François Clouet still calls home, dates back even further! Beneath this historic site lies their labyrinthine chalk cellar, which still contains partial false walls that hid precious bottles during the Nazi invasion in World War II. With all this historic grandeur surrounding him, Jean-François draws from tradition and time-honored techniques while respectively embracing modern technology into the mix. What you’re getting in “Cuvée 1911” is a little piece of performance art in the form of a bottle. Jean-François Clouet 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.
Clouet farms only eight hectares of vines, most of them in Bouzy, a Grand Cru village famous for its exceptionally concentrated and vinous Pinot Noir due to a slight dip in the hillside that protects it from harsh winds and earns it slightly warmer temperatures. Always coming in at 100% Grand Cru Pinot Noir, “1911” is sourced from 10 of their best parcels, or lieux-dits, in Bouzy that produce a wine of rich concentration and intense minerality. This is his newest disgorgement, with 50% consisting of a barrel-fermented selection from 2008 and the other half coming from a 10+-year-old perpetual reserve. After the wine was bottled, it aged on its lees for a staggering number of years until disgorgement in June of 2020. It was given a light dosage of five grams.
Clouet’s newest “Cuvée 1911” once again chooses precision over opulence, overflowing with rich yet supremely finessed layers of ripe yellow fruit, crushed chalk minerality, and well-integrated secondary flavors. To allow the magnificent aromatics to really blossom, avoid serving in a narrow, traditional Champagne flute. Opt instead for a white wine stem, a more open, tulip-shaped Champagne stem, or a large Burgundy stem (I typically chose the latter). Whichever you choose, the wine surges with energy and freshness, releasing Rainier cherry, crushed hazelnuts, plum skin, red apple, currants, red and white flowers, lees, brioche, citrus curd, oyster shell, and pulverized stone. Albeit a bit reticent at first, the palate broadens and expands as the wine opens up, and by your second glass, starts revealing Clouet’s signature luxuriousness. Its powerful, ample body is only matched by the magnitude of savory minerality that lingers on the finish. It is to be enjoyed now and over the next decade. Cheers!
