Sunday letter · Week 35
Letters from the cellar — Week 35
30 August 2026
A king passed, a house turned 250, and the chalk kept doing what the chalk does. Six bottles and two stories from a week that ran from Reims to the Côte des Blancs and back.
From the writing desk
Two stories went up this week. The first came on Friday morning, when the flag came down over the Palace and the wine I had lined up turned out to carry the right name — The King's Cupbearer, on Mailly Grand Cru Les Échansons 2015 and the old French word for the man who looked after the king's glass. The second was the longer one I'd been sitting on: Who decides when a champagne is ready? — on Louis Roederer holding back a slice of every Cristal vintage for another decade, and what all that waiting actually does to a wine. Both, as it happens, found their way into the glass this week.
The one to find
Louis Roederer Cristal Rosé Late Release 2008 — 99. Bottle of the week, and not by a small margin. Like having a rose in the glass — every time you fold back a petal there's something new underneath. Wild strawberry and mandarin, then warm pastry and cherry, then chalk, white pepper and a fine phenolic bitterness. Creamy and knife-sharp at once. The best rosé champagne I've had in a very long time. If you see one, buy it. This is the wine the story was about — the one the house held back, and the one that makes the argument for waiting.
Quietly excellent
Mailly Grand Cru Les Échansons 2015 — 93. A genuinely lovely nose: orange blossom, citrus zest, chalk and salt, with an herbal edge. Rich and creamy and long. The cooperative in Mailly keeps making grand cru champagne that outperforms its price. Worth a spot in the cellar — and worth reading alongside, if you haven't already.
Worth knowing
The Bruno Paillard line-up — three bottles, all good, none above 90, but honest champagne at honest prices. The Bruno Paillard Dosage: Zéro reads as full rather than austere, which is harder to do than it sounds. If you're after grower champagne that doesn't shout, start here.
What to put away
Two from this week that will reward patience: the Louis Roederer Cristal Rosé Late Release 2008, which is only just beginning, and the Mailly Grand Cru Les Échansons 2015, which has a decade and a half ahead of it. Both want time. Give it to them.