Ken on Esplendidos

[El Presidente]

 

Great to see him working 

 

Cohiba Espléndido Cubans: For Many, It’s The King Of Cigars

 

by Ken Gargett

Ask someone with little knowledge of watches what the best brand is and I would guess a significant number would respond, “Rolex.” I would. (A horologically inclined site this may be, but I’ll confess to the most rudimentary knowledge of watches.) A casual champagne drinker would likely name Dom Pérignon as the world’s finest, or possibly even Moët. And so it goes.

Dom Pérignon is undoubtedly a great champagne, but the best? At that level, we are talking personal preference.

 

CONTINUED

[BuzzArd]

He writes well....

[Markspring1978]

As always, a great read. Now...to find some.  

[wine_junkie]

Good read. Thanks Ken! 
 

I would say Dom as the premier Champagne out there relies on the past and the current assumption is out dated. Dom (to me) pales in comparison to MANY champagnes out there - including most Growers. 
 

Wheras Cohiba still holds a special spot for me....specifically the Esplendido. 

[La_Tigre]

“Castro generously nominated himself as the man to test the quality of the output.”

“In one of the more interesting commercial decisions, reports claim that some 200 local prostitutes were rounded up and given training for their new career – two birds, one stone?”

?

[Fuzz]

1 hour ago, La_Tigre said:

“Castro generously nominated himself as the man to test the quality of the output.”

“In one of the more interesting commercial decisions, reports claim that some 200 local prostitutes were rounded up and given training for their new career – two birds, one stone?”

?

“A man’s strength can be measured by his appetites. Indeed, a man’s strength flows from his appetites.” - Roper, "Enter The Dragon" 

[Ken Gargett]

6 hours ago, wine_junkie said:

Good read. Thanks Ken! 
 

I would say Dom as the premier Champagne out there relies on the past and the current assumption is out dated. Dom (to me) pales in comparison to MANY champagnes out there - including most Growers. 
 

Wheras Cohiba still holds a special spot for me....specifically the Esplendido. 

i may have misled. my comment was supposed to cover what the bloke in the street assumes is the best. so rolex for watches (i am assured that it is not so), dom for champers, cohiba for cigars etc etc.

as for Dom, i would argue that personal preference is the ultimate determining factor (and yes, i acknowledge that you have effectively said just that with your 'to me'), but Dom has been superb ever since Richard Geoffroy took over as chef de cave. the 88 vintage? might have been the 90. he is a brilliant, if unconventional, mind. their champagnes have been at a quality level equal to any going around. which does not mean that they are the best. up to the individual. i have a friend who hates cristal, for example. but Doms like their 08 are sensational (shall we ignore the wonky 03 for these purposes). now that he has retired, be interesting to see how it all goes. but vincent chaperon has been working with him so long that one would expect a seamless transition.

one thing i would disagree with, most strongly, is "most growers". i think most growers make a fairly bog average and unexciting product. fortunately we don't see most of it. there are a few growers that do a brilliant job. been buying Ulysse Collin for ages. love his wines. selosse (though they are seriously inconsistent - the one thing Dom can never be accused of is inconsistency - and way overpriced), egly, agrapart, numerous others, but nowhere near most. 

[Ken Gargett]

8 hours ago, El Presidente said:

 

Great to see him working 

 

Cohiba Espléndido Cubans: For Many, It’s The King Of Cigars

 

by Ken Gargett

Ask someone with little knowledge of watches what the best brand is and I would guess a significant number would respond, “Rolex.” I would. (A horologically inclined site this may be, but I’ll confess to the most rudimentary knowledge of watches.) A casual champagne drinker would likely name Dom Pérignon as the world’s finest, or possibly even Moët. And so it goes.

Dom Pérignon is undoubtedly a great champagne, but the best? At that level, we are talking personal preference.

 

CONTINUED

thanks but i am always working. 

[El Hoze]

9 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

i have a friend who hates cristal, for example. but Doms like their 08 are sensational (shall we ignore the wonky 03 for these purposes). 

I thought I was the only one who had never tasted a bottle of Cristal I was impressed by. Never understood Cristal. Big fan of Dom over the years. Rolex/Cohiba/Dom is a great parallel. Rolex is certainly not the best made watch by a long shot but arguably the best brand, and for some reason I wear Rolex more than any other watch. Just hits the spot for me. I do smoke alot of Cohiba (probably the #2 marca to HU for me....but to me Trinidad is a miss more than a hit.) 

Just another guy from New Jersey living in Florida with his Dom, Rolex, and Cohiba. Dime a dozen. 

[mprach024]

17 hours ago, wine_junkie said:

Good read. Thanks Ken! 
 

I would say Dom as the premier Champagne out there relies on the past and the current assumption is out dated. Dom (to me) pales in comparison to MANY champagnes out there - including most Growers. 
 

Wheras Cohiba still holds a special spot for me....specifically the Esplendido. 

I’ll take a Special Club grower champagne over any Dom, Cristal, Roger/Winston Churchill 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

[cigaraholic]

Your honest....you don’t know much about watches?

[wine_junkie]

22 minutes ago, mprach024 said:

I’ll take a Special Club grower champagne over any Dom, Cristal, Roger/Winston Churchill 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

Special Club is great stuff! Love Vilmart as well....

[Ken Gargett]

4 hours ago, mprach024 said:

I’ll take a Special Club grower champagne over any Dom, Cristal, Roger/Winston Churchill 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

if i had any of the special clubs, we'd be arranging a deal right now! not that i don't like some of the special clubs - jose michel espcially and gimmonet, hebrant, larmandier etc, and i know it is trendy to bag the great names and pump the growers - but this is dismissing some of the great wines of the world a little too easily for me.   

[Ken Gargett]

4 hours ago, cigaraholic said:

Your honest....you don’t know much about watches?

correct. what i know about watches could be written on the back of a small one with a thick permanent marker. 

[mprach024]

1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

if i had any of the special clubs, we'd be arranging a deal right now! not that i don't like some of the special clubs - jose michel espcially and gimmonet, hebrant, larmandier etc, and i know it is trendy to bag the great names and pump the growers - but this is dismissing some of the great wines of the world a little too easily for me.   

I’d happily make that trade!   Lol, but it’s hard to have a large collection of Special Club, by nature.  Would I trade you Special Club for a Plenitude 2, Krug, or Salon?  Nope.  That’d be dumb even if just from a financial standpoint.  But regular DP, PRWC, VCLGD or Cristal, absolutely I make that trade (save for 96 or 90 vintages).  I don’t mean to dismiss these wine blenders, they put out some great products and I drink them a lot, but I’m sorry you take off Dom Pérignon’s name and that bottle is not worth it’s cost, and many SC will outperform.  My opinion by the way, I’m sure LMVH disagrees and you can differ as well, we all prefer our grape juice differently.

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, mprach024 said:

I’d happily make that trade!   Lol, but it’s hard to have a large collection of Special Club, by nature.  Would I trade you Special Club for a Plenitude 2, Krug, or Salon?  Nope.  That’d be dumb even if just from a financial standpoint.  But regular DP, PRWC, VCLGD or Cristal, absolutely I make that trade (save for 96 or 90 vintages).  I don’t mean to dismiss these wine blenders, they put out some great products and I drink them a lot, but I’m sorry you take off Dom Pérignon’s name and that bottle is not worth it’s cost, and many SC will outperform.  My opinion by the way, I’m sure LMVH disagrees and you can differ as well, we all prefer our grape juice differently.

cost is a slightly different issue (some of the small growers are good value - some are definitely not, but champagne is a seriously undervalued region compared to burgs and bordeaux etc) but i have seen way too many blind tastings where dom excels and people are left going 'i had no idea it really was that good'. i believe dom suffers from the 'big must be bad' philosophy that so many assume must be true. and because you see way too many people treat it like some idiotic celebrity drink. i remember a dance floor in KL that was literally over an inch deep in dom that was just being poured over everything. since richard got there, it has been a brilliant champagne. but i suspect this will be an agree to disagree moment. 

another one might be that while i love 90 and 96 vintages, i would take the 88s over them every time. sadly i have almost no 88s left. 

you put your finger on part of why i'd argue for those "blenders". champagne is a region of blenders - grapes, vineyards, vintages and so on. the financial resources of those guys and the fact that they have access to so much more than the small guys opens up so many opportunities that the growers simply do not have. growers have to work with poor vintages and limited material. the big guys can avoid that. 

an exception - i would make the trade you suggest on occasion, simply to try wines i have not seen. it would be for interest rather than any genuine expectation of finding superior quality. 

[BTWheezy]

On 10/11/2020 at 2:43 PM, BuzzArd said:

He writes well....

*He writes good...

FTFY. ?