September Wines of the Month: Alfred Gratien Vintage Brut 2002 & Penfolds Yattarna 2005

I’m really looking forward to a vertical tasting this Friday of 28 vintages of Moulin Touchais. Spanning 1961 – 2003, it includes the 1986 – the first really mature bottle of wine I ever tasted. I well remember how, for the first time, I was struck by wine’s capacity to evolve in bottle and develop delicious complexity.

In this last month, two youthful back vintages have impressed:

Alfred Gratien Vintage Brut 2002

I bought six bottles of this Champagne (70% Chardonnay, including a large proportion of Grand Cru vineyards, 21% Pinot Noir and 9% Pinot Meunier) en primeur from The Wine Society last year. I’m a great fan of both house and vintage and the resulting wine is fabulous – weighty and complex (Gratien age the base wines in 250 litre oak casks), with hints of biscuit and toast on a ripe, lemony, poised and persistent palate with the finest of beads. The finish is precise, clean and reverberatingly fresh (Gratien suppress the malolactic fermentation), so I’ve no doubt it will age very well indeed, if I can resist it! Though it’s not currently listed by The Wine Society, they do stock the 98, 99 and a 2007 Blanc de Blancs.

Penfolds Yattarna 2005

A glass of so-called “white Grange” (pictured) made a fine accompaniment for the launch of The Penfolds Ampoule (about which you can read here). Measured of delivery, its cool white orchard fruit (pear, white peach) restrained, the acidity well-focused, it hummed along very nicely indeed, finishing deep and crisp and even, with subtle, savoury nuances. Very good. On song. (The current release of Yattarna is the 2009 vintage).