Veuve Clicquot Rosé

"I'm not going to sleep with you," said Tiffany Case in a matter-of-fact voice, "so don't waste your money getting me tight. But I'll have another and probably another after that. I just don't want to drink your vodka Martinis under false pretenses."

Bond laughed. He gave the order and turned back to her. "We haven't ordered dinner yet, "He said. "I was going to suggest shellfish and hock. That might have changed your mind. The combination's supposed to have quite an effect."

"Listen Bond," Said Tiffany, "it'd take more than Crabmeat Ravigotte to get me into bed. In any case, since it's your check, I'm going to have caviar and what you English call cutlets and some pink champagne. I don't often date a good-looking Englishman, and the dinner's going to live up to the occasion."Suddenly she leaned forward towards him and reached out a hand and put it over his. "Sorry,"She said abruptly, "I didn't mean that about the check. The dinner's on me. But I did mean it about the occasion."  

So begins the chapter "Bitter Champagne" where Bond, under cover, reunites with Tiffany Case to celebrate their successful diamond smuggling job. Three Martinis and some surprisingly barbed banter later, Bond orders and tastes the champagne. He finds it ice cold and tasting faintly of strawberries.  In retrospect, I can't help but wonder if his impression of the champagne is a metaphor for Tiffany. 

From James Bond Omnibus 001

Tiffany Case is emotionally damaged and mercurial in a way no other character in the series is with the possible exception of Bond himself; seeming for all the world like someone desperate for escape from her life but unable to imagine anything more lasting than a fancy dinner and a few cocktails with a handsome Englishman she has no intention of taking to bed.  The entire chapter is devoted to their evening at Club 21 in New York as Bond tries, mostly without success, to charm information out of her about The Spangled Mob.  She is clearly unashamed, even proud, of her work but clearly hates it and herself for doing it all the same.  007 is out of his depth with Tiffany Case and the disconnect between their obvious attraction to one another and their own self loathing about their individual and conflicting jobs is what gives the novel its vaguely schizoid emotional center as well as propelling the needlessly complicated plot forward. 

In a sense, this feeling of unattainable or unrealized potential resonates with my own feelings about the champagne they drink with dinner; Veuve Clicquot Rosé .  On the whole, I found it pleasant but somehow inconsistent. What flavor notes were present were balanced in a way not unlike Bollinger N.V. (at nearly the same price point) but, unlike the Bollinger, the mouth feel seemed a bit rough with what one of my tasting companions described as "vivacious bubbles."  Where the flavors and texture of the Bollinger were in complete harmony, I felt the Vueve Cliquot Rosé was a study in minimalist melodies with arrhythmic structures.

I did not encounter notes of strawberries but those of cassis and green apples. I found this mildly surprising as cassis is not a flavor one associates with Reims where the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne house is located but with Dijon (some 200 miles south).  

Another of my companions enthusiastically remarked that the wine tasted "like An Affair to Remember", sophisticated, romantic and dry and, perhaps, this is where it comes to down to personal taste. Everything I might want from a Rosé Brut is here but I prefer bold, confident notes to delicate ones and while this was a very enjoyable champagne and one I would not hesitate to drink again (particularly with seafood), where I found myself wishing for a delicate texture, I found it rough and where I yearned for slightly stronger flavors, I found restraint.  

That said, this would be a delightful champagne to pair with crème de cassis for a Kir Royale, owing to the predominate (such as it is) cassis flavor.

Note: It is, perhaps, worth mentioning that in a party of four, mine was the minority opinion. My companions all found the Vueve Cliquot Rosé to be a more than satisfactory champagne.