Les Etoiles 2012 RD
VQA Prince Edward County $49.50
Traditional Method
12% alcohol
50% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay
3200L originally produced (~350 cases), 200 bottles available today.
80 months aged sur lattes prior to disgorgement on February 24th, 2020.
Zero dosage.Â
Please wait 6 months from the date
of disgorgement to open.
We’ve provided our raw tasting notes taken at the dosage trial which is when the Les Etoiles & Rosé informed us no dosage was required. Perhaps the tasting notes are a bit unorthodox but we wanted to share our honest observations of the two wines taken at
the time of tasting.
"Rosé has amazing complexity. We’re stunned that there is still fruit, in fact, there is a lot of fruit. High tone aromatics. A mature wine to be sure but vibrant and still lively. Broad in the palate and aromatics, it is a sparkling wine with broad shoulders. To be drunk relatively soon. Aromatics of ripe plums. Opulent on the palate. Clean and long. It’s serious traditional method. It needs food."
"What we like about both wines is that they’re not fragile. Les Etoiles is awesome!
It's world class. Almonds and marzipan. Not frail, it’s a sturdy wine for its age. A slight oxidative sherry note but in a good way, how vintage champagnes should taste.
Both wines are very intense and require a conversation when drinking. Both are very hedonistic wines. There is just so much going on and the wines are so rich. You have to love champagne to get it. Zero dosage, not surprising because it was a hot year."
(It was at this point Jonas started riffing on potential pairings, which included Dover Sole Almandine for the Les Etoiles and Bouillabaisse for the Rosé).
Notes from the initial release in 2015:
The 2012 vintage was very sunny and warm, in fact very similar to the hot vintage of 2010 but with one major difference, no frost damage! Better spring weather and a decent crop in the vineyard (still low at 1.5 tonnes per acre) also helped us harvest fruit of high quality.
The fruit was hand picked with the perfect acidity and sugar levels for sparkling. Our grapes take longer to reach the sugar and acidity levels needed for sparkling in PEC (when compared to other sparkling wine regions) and as a result our grapes display very complex ripe flavours at time of harvest.
The Les Etoiles is pure elegance; balance, with a concentrated flavour that comes from a long growing season and low yields in the vineyard. Made with 50% Pinot Noir & 50% Chardonnay.