The Connoisseur Bottle Pack

DUMENIL, CUVÉE JANY PORET, PREMIER CRU, BRUT
Sacy, France

We fell in love with Frédérique Poret, the co-winemaker of Champagne Dumenil, the moment we met her at a special tasting for Champagne insiders last April. She invited us to visit the maison and vines but sadly there was no time. All we knew was that we loved her champagne and her bubbly side of life!

After coming back to the states, we started planning the next time we could visit the maison and be sure her champagnes were what we wanted for our club! We visited on a beautiful day in July and were greeted with glasses of champagnes in her vineyards of Sacy, one of the 44 Premier Cru villages. In fact, all of their vines come from only three Premier Cru villages: Sacy, Chigney-les-roses (where the house was founded by her Great Grandfather) and Ludes, all within a15 min drive from each other. Only the cuvée juice is used in all of their champagnes and the aging is minimum 3 years, more than double the minimum aging requirement.

The Jany Poret is a gorgeous and luscious example of finely crafted champagne with pin-point bubbles! 100% Premier Cru all from the village of Sacy and aged for 3 years. Fresh, fleshy, and ripe fruit categorize this blend. This wine is a perfect match for white meats, fresh style cheese, and by itself to cheers to life!

Why we love this: Small Production Grower Champagne
Varietals: 60% Pinot Meunier, 30% Pinot Noir, 10% Chardonnay
Age: 3 years on the lees

BRÜNDLMAYER, BRUT ROSÉ, SEKT
Niederösterreich, Austria

We visited Bründlmayer on a cold day on December 27th, 2021 and were warmly welcomed by Andreas Wickhoff, a Master of Wine and 1 of 3 on the wine making team. Their more than 700-year-old underground cellars were incredible! We also visited their wine library and learned about the amazing philosophy of wine making as a vineyard practice. When Willi Bründlmayer took over his parents’ winery, he introduced a policy of ecological wine growing and since 1979, synthetic fertilizers have been banned! Their vineyards are cultivated sustainably, following the Austrian Program of Sustainable Agriculture and all organic since 2015! When old vineyards are cleared, the fields are left fallow, for several years if necessary, so that the soil can recover fully.

All of their sparkling wine, or "Sekt" as the Austrians call it, are riddled by hand and some of the wines are aged in large Austrian barrels adding to the delicious fresh complex style of Bründlmayer.Their rosé is in a league of its own for sparkling rosé and we think this may become one of your favorites from anywhere. This wine has been acclaimed as "The Best Sparkling Wine in the World," by Tastingbook.com and "The best Rosé Sekt," by A La Carte Magazin. Enjoy with seafood, white cream sauce, mushrooms, or as an aperitif!

Why we love this: High-End Unique Austrian Sparkling Rosé
Varietals: Pinot Noir (Blauburgunder), Zweigelt, St. Laurent
Age: 24 months on the lees