Wine of the Week 199

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2000 Dumangin, Brut Millésime Champagne, France (£30.75, Yapp Brothers Ltd, tel. 01747 860423 & www.yapp.co.uk). Tasting through all of Gilles Dumangin’s ‘vins clairs’ (still, dry wines before blending and secondary fermentation) last week was one of the most informative and enjoyable moments I can remember in Champagne. This assessment and assemblage moment is the single most important decision in the life of the wines because it sets out the taste parameters for the evolution of each and every wine. Gilles is a perfectionist of rare dimensions - his OCD score must be off the clock! The minute, incremental and inspirational adjustments that he makes are the reasons why his Champagnes are some of the most invigorating and memorable around. Being a small grower, with an adoring and ever-expanding fan base means that the prices are fair, too – not something you can say about many in the region. Yapp sells a decent range of his Champagnes, so do check out their website for more cuvées. Suffice to say that every wine that I tasted could have made this page. This millennium vintage wine is a stormer – with broad brushstrokes of lusty, ripe, succulent fruit. It is half the price of a similarly built wine from one of the more famous, household names. He even opened some ‘Vinothèque’ cuvées (1994, 1995 and 1996) which were staggering along with some single varietal, as yet unlabelled, 2000/1 blends which were awesome! Do encourage Yapp to ship some of these wines over – you will be bowled over!

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