Two Libras celebrating birthdays in a row. Thanks to everyone for all the exciting bottles. I just put the bubble portion here.

Roses de Jeanne Blanc de Blancs ‘La Boloree’ 2008 (750ml)

Disgorged in April, 2012

100% Pinot Blanc; single vineyard on chalky soil

What an exciting aperitif!

Racy, vivid aromas of fresh cut grass, perfumed wild flowers, white tea leaf & white fruit, dusted with intense, flinty chalk.

Crisp attack of crushed chalk & crystalline white fruit, with natural stings & bites. Original & vivid.

A textural creaminess sensually fills out the mid palate and extends onto the lingering finale, wrapping up the racy spine of green-and-white-nuanced flavors, which keeps it brisk, lifted & vibrant all the way through.

What a lovely marriage of raciness & sensuality, intensity & ethereality!

The very feel of Spring in my glass!

A rare find in Champagne. A lovely minority with distinctive character.

Salon Le Mesnil 1996 (750ml)

The bouquet of this bottle is a touch shy & discreet, but its purity & class is undoubted.

The palate, on the other hand, is midway in its evolution, lush, full and already approachable. A powerhouse of a Blanc de Blancs! Mellowness of ripe apple mingles with raciness of Kiwi. Such is the intensity of fruit that it already picks up gamy undertones. Grand structure. Huge acidity (but well balanced by the density of fruit, thus not feeling austere).

Changes are on the way. Wait another 5 years or more for autumnal complexities to build up.

Philipponnat Clos des Goisses 1975 (750ml)

My vintage is not that much a prolific one in Champagne. So a special Thank You to Johnny for seeking this rare find. From a German connoisseur’s private cellar.

This bottle is the original disgorgement.

Orange-amber. Barely perceptible fizz.

Evolved, resolved nectar. Mightily vinous & long.

Liquor-like bouquet & flavor. White chocolate, dried fruit (longan, preserved plum), coffee, malt whisky, aniseed and walnut. With more aeration in the glass, saline minerality asserts itself on the palate, and a menthol character comes out, giving this oldie a brisk tone, albeit all the evolved tastes.