Tempest – Ullens Brut Champagne

In a line with last year, I came up with a tropical Champagne cocktail. This time it was inspired by the classic Hurricane. However, I also added a passion fruit jam as well as some Moscatel sherry just for good measure. Furthermore, this gives me the perfect excuse to review this rather new champagne.

Maxime Ullens de Schooten and his partner Anna sold their first cuvée in 2019 and they already are rising stars in the Champagne region. All of their wines are vinified in casks they get from a local cooperage. For their “Brut” they use 80 % Pinot Meunier and 20 % Chardonnay with 50 % reserve wines. In the end, a Dosage of just 3 g / litre is added.

Green apples and Brioche

On its own, the Ullens Brut has a great yeast and green apple notes. You also get some slight mineral notes of clay and flintstones. The taste is dominated by red fruits, honey and Brioche with slight citrus notes. All in all, the champagne really shows what the relatively young champagne makers can do. I am happy to watch what they come up with in the future.

A Royal Hurricane?

I cannot really explain why, but I just felt the need to make a Hurricane style drink, but with bubbles. Therefore, I combined two flavourful rums with Moscatel sherry. On top of that, I added the passionfruit flavour with passionfruit & orange syrup and passionfruit & peach jam. The jam also adds a nice mouth feel to the drink.

The “Tempest” starts with the clear Hurricane like notes of rum and passionfruit. Shortly afterwards a winey notes develops comprised of the sweet sherry and the champagne. In the end, The peaches and oranges add some more tropical flavours which are greatly complimented by the carbonation from the sparkling wine.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The champagne was provided by Champagne Characters.