Atherton Wine Imports, San Jose CA. 

85% Chardonnay from grand cru vineyards in Chouilly; 15% still Pinot Noir from premier cru vineyards in the Montagne de Reims.  Dosage: 5 g/l.

Ten years on tasting.

Coral pink.  Racy for the vintage, those Chouilly underpinnings give her self-assurance, tonic dryness and a definitive mineral streak.  Sanguine, pillowy fruit tends to blood orange and woodland raspberry.  Dewdrop limpidity for the vintage: no taint or blowsiness.  The safe bet with these scorched years is to drink soon (it’s sunshine that properly ripens grapes for longevity, not heat).  But if ’99 Champagne taught us anything it’s hold on to a couple bottles like this, a phoenix may still emerge.