95 Jean Milan, Champagne Oger Grand Cru "Terres de Noel" Blanc de Blancs Brut

A model of elegance, with the purity of a pre-Bush-administration Alaskan glacier. Jean Milan's special old-vines cuvee singes with complexity, bowing long notes of Meyer lemon, icy mountain water, flinty sea salt, and vanilla-soaked walnuts. What two years ago was a wine so Chablisienne in structure--so strained with acidity--that it was difficult to drink, has now climaxed into something other-worldly that proves there is much more to chardonnay than what Burgundy can offer. I put it in a class with 90 Salon. Milan's champagne is less baroque, though. It typifies greatness from a vintage that could have been missed with all the 90s, 88s, and R.D.s on the market, but one that has earned its card. A wine can do no better than to bring such admiration and respect to its peers.