Nicolas Feuillatte at Tenshin

These are notes from an evening when we were invited by Dr KW Wang to dinner at Tenshin, a Japanese restaurant specialising strictly in tempura only at the Regent Hotel, Singapore, 8 May 2014, themed with the champagne of Nicolas Feuillatte, the well-known maison based in Epernay.  To get the evening rolling, the Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Reserve NV was served as the aperitif, displaying complex flavours of citrus, lime and grapefruit amidst a generous body of light toast with excellent depth of fruit, smooth, lively and refreshing with just a tad of sweetness by the side. This was followed quickly by the Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Rose NV. Having had more experience with champagne over the years, I no longer quite fancy rose nowadays, tending to find them a bit too straightforward and lacking in real character. This turned out to be the case here, the wine exhibiting notes of cider, tangerine and a hint of red fruits, slightly dry but ultimately lacking in true complexity even though the wine attained greater depth and expanse over time with further notes of pomelo and bitter lemon.

The 2004 Nicolas Feuillatte Cuvee 225 was the first in the line-up that accompanied the meal proper, its name derived from the litre capacity of the barrel in which it had been aged for 4 years prior to bottling. This vintage champagne has clearly benefitted from its additional time in the cellar, yielding a more refined wine of high-toned minerality with attractive yeasty aromas replete with smoke and white flowers, generous and long on the palate, yet delicate and beautifully balanced right down to its gentle finish. Excellent stuff.

The trio of vintage champagne kicked off with the 2000 Nicolas Feuillatte Grand Cru Blanc de Noir Millesime, golden in color though its considerable bottle age has resulted in a darker tone on the palate with deep yeasty overtones and notes of delicate bitter lemon with a touch of green, malt and wheat. Very lovely and long. The was followed by the 2002 Nicolas Feuillatte Palmes d’Or Brut where the outstanding vintage has made its mark, the wine producing a highly enticing nose of deep yeasty overtones and hazelnuts, exhibiting great subtlety on the palate, treading a delicate line between a high-tone minerality and flavours of complex citrus and exotic fruits, achieving fine balance but yet to realise its full potential. Quite outstanding. Bringing up the rear was the 2005 Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Rose Palmes d’Or, a rather unusual rose displaying great complexity on the nose with lifted aromas of rose petals and cherries allied with characters of camphor, orangey citrus and cinnamon on the palate, medium-bodied and well-balanced, leading to a long finish recalling whisky and malt, bringing the evening to a most satisfying conclusion.