Champagne and Sushi
February 21, 2025
Nikita Malhotra and Edouard Bourgeois
A light snow carpeted the cozy West Village streets, and the private dining space at Sushi Nakazawa became a little refuge from the cold and wet conditions outside. It was a perfect setting for our ambitious Champagne offering, a smattering of iconic producers and a list that offered a narrative of Champagne that the Pressoir team has been excited to showcase with our festival La Fête du Champagne, our monthly apéro or sessions and intimate dinners such as this one at Sushi Nakazawa.
We started the evening with a magnum of Agrapart Vénus 2017, with the first flights centered around blanc de blancs and followed this with a magnum of Savart’s Gouttes d'Or 2017, also in magnum and only bottled as such. A strong start, and these two bottles showed a more powerful side to the blanc de blancs narrative. The next wine we had is a paradigm for many in terms of blanc de blancs, Pierre Peters Les Chétillons, we poured the 2011 vintage, and it certainly reinforced everyone’s admiration for Rodolphe Péters. We were able to talk about Le Mesnil sur Oger, and thus explore the best of the Côte des Blancs Grand Cru Villages, as the Savart bottling is sourced from Cramant.
Next was Salon, with a flight featuring 2 vintages, 2012 and 2007. Since the very beginning, Champagne Salon has been made in a unique way. Unlike most Champagnes it is never a blend. Always from a single grape (Chardonnay) a single village (the majestic village of Mesnil sur Oger) and one vintage (only the best), Salon is always exceptional and was one of the first, if not the first Blanc de Blancs ever created!
Continuing with another giant of the Blanc de Blancs world, guests were pleased to taste the prestige cuvée of house Ruinart, the first Champagne house, founded in 1729. Aged no less than nine years on the lees, this Grand Cru Champagne is a true “haute couture” wine, disgorged by hand and crafted with the utmost care.
The flights that followed introduced Champagne made from red grapes. It is important here to mention that Champagne makes it a specialty to elaborate white sparkling wine using red grape, a result obtained by the very delicate handling of the juices and the grape skins where the color is not allowed to stain the pristine juice. La Closerie kicked off this Blanc de Noirs category with a marvelous example of Pinot Meunier, full of red, ripe fruit. Jerome Prevost’ La Closerie has become a very difficult Champagne to find, made from a tiny 2 hectare plot in small quantities. It is also quite a recent operation with the first released vintage in 1998.
Another giant of the Champagne universe we felt obliged to present was the unmistakable Dom Perignon. Named after the monk who refined the art of blending in Champagne in the 17th century, “DP” always displays a distinctive aromatic signature and we were thrilled to serve side by side the excellent 2012 as well as the special bottling “P2”, which stands for second plénitude and was aged for no less than 16 years from the 2004 vintage.
After such an exhilarating lineup, the only possible producer to ensure a relevant grand finale is obviously Anselme Selosse. A giant name in Champagne, Anselme Selosse is regarded as a pioneer and vastly influential personality with many disciples. His techniques and approach to farming and winemaking are as simple as they are complex. Since he took over from his father in 1974, Anselme has been on a quest for expressing the terroirs he inherited with the most authenticity. Perhaps one of his most well-known skills is the expert use of oxygen during winemaking and his deep understanding of the magic of fermentation. We served two extremely sought after wines from Selosse, the vintage 2002 and 2009. Interestingly, that cuvée was originally a blanc de blancs made from two plots in Avize. But, beginning with the 2007 vintage, it is assembled from all of the estate’s plots, both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
This memorable night was punctuated with many interesting conversations amongst sips and swirls, we have witnessed that a love of Champagne presents a never-ending quest to understand the wine and this region. There are so many decisions to be made and variables to understand, and we hope to continue presenting Champagne as this beautiful tapestry, with many layers and stories to tell.
