A Trio of Champagnes

Our friends and we convened on New Year's Eve and contrived a potluck that celebrated the coming of a new year. Our friends supplied the Krug and the Egly-Ouriet and we antied up the Volleraux.

We have enjoyed the Egly-Ouriet Les Vignes de Vrigny as well as a Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition Grand Cru but this is the first time that we have been treated to the 2002 Egly-Ouriet Champagne Grand Cru Brut Millésimé! The label on the back of this bottle stated that the champagne spent 106 months on lees and was disgorged in 2012. Our friends tell the story of taking a bottle of this champagne to another party where it was part of a line-up of champagnes. That group really enjoyed the Egly-Ouriet but they were put off by the surfeit of tiny bubbles. (Smiley face!) The Egly-Ouriet and the Krug were the champagne stars of the evening. On the back of the Krug bottle was an I.D. 412073, so I went to the Krug site and typed the number in and got the following information: This bottle is an extraordinary blend of 142 wines from 11 different vintages, the oldest from 1990 and the youngest from 2006. Every glass of this bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée is the fruit of more than 22 years of craft and patience.
We had a bevy of appetizers including oysters to go along with the trio of Champagnes but what stole the show was the trio of ceviche that our friend made.

Who knew that ceviche pairs excellently with champagne! We lingered over the appetizers, savoring and remarking on the pairings, enjoying the slow-food dinner since this was only the first course.