Switzerland’s 57-kilometre Gotthard Base Tunnel hosts a retracing of the historic route through the Alps
One of the world’s latest masterpieces of civil engineering also makes for a fascinating rail journey.
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Cheese isn’t the only thing in Switzerland that’s full of holes. In Europe’s most mountainous country, so is the scenery. There’s an audio presentation cycling through four languages aboard the Gotthard Panorama Express as it rolls steadily towards peaks thrusting high into a clear sky. The English version tells us we’re heading for “the most perforated mountain in the world”.
Saint Gotthard isn’t the name of a specific summit. Instead, it applies to an entire range. The Saint Gotthard Massif separates Switzerland from Italy and it’s a big, beautiful and formidable barrier. Its high points top 3000 metres; not nearly enough to rank among the giants of the Alps, but still more than 750 metres taller than Australia’s Mount Kosciuszko.
It’s almost 150 years since the Swiss punched the first hole through Saint Gotthard. Drilling and dynamiting for a decade, they created a new rail route through the Alpine heart of Europe, a direct link between the Mediterranean and the North Sea.
Pack animals and, later, wagons had been carrying goods over the Gotthard Pass for around six centuries, but snow would block the route for half the year, from November to May. Obviously, a railway running through tunnels would have vastly more freight capacity and could operate year-round.
The first rail tunnel through St Gotthard.
The feat of that first rail tunnel remains a source of pride for the Swiss to this day, according to historian Kilian Elsasser. He’s an expert on everything Gotthard, but especially the original tunnel. “It was the big achievement of Switzerland in the last 150 years, I would say. The railway line made it so important, this Gotthard Pass. Before, it was one of several passes through the Alps and without the line it would still be one of several passes through the Alps.”
From an engineering point of view, this was a madly ambitious project. It meant boring a 15-kilometre main tunnel, longer than any other in the world at the time. To create gradients gentle enough for hard-working locomotives to climb, the track would have to corkscrew through rock lining both the gorges that led to the main tunnel, 1100 metres up. It was one of the first engineering projects in the world to make large-scale use of dynamite, patented only a few years earlier. It’s estimated that 1000 tonnes of the powerful explosive, invented by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, was used.
Drama and tragedy punctuated the decade it took to construct the Gotthard Tunnel. The labourers, mainly Italians, protested over working conditions and pay in 1875. The Swiss Army, brought in to quell the unrest, fired on the strikers and killed four of them.
The workers had a point; at least 199 are known to have died in accidents in the tunnel. And the Gotthard Tunnel’s Genevan chief engineer, Louis Favre, died while inspecting work on it in 1879. Relentless pressure to keep to budget and timetable provoked his fatal heart attack, it was said.
The precision of Favre’s work only became apparent the year after his death. When the tunnels driving south from Göschenen on the Swiss side and north from Airolo on the Italian side finally met, their divergences in height and direction were trivial. The first train steamed through the Gotthard Tunnel in 1882.
It would be almost a century until another tunnel punctured the Saint Gotthard Massif. Opened in 1980, the new road tunnel had also taken a decade to dig. As it follows the same route as the rail tunnel, the road tunnel’s length is similar, at 17 kilometres.
Stunning scenery awaits at the end of the tunnel on the new Panaorama Gotthard Express rail journey.
However, both the original rail tunnel and the younger road tunnel are eye-blink short compared to the latest route bored through this part of the Alps. The 57-kilometre Gotthard Base Tunnel, officially opened in June 2016 and fully operational by December that year, reclaims the Longest Tunnel in the World title for Switzerland. It’s also the world’s deepest traffic tunnel; its maximum depth of almost 2500 metres is similar to the deepest mines.
The Gotthard Base Tunnel is, in reality, a pair of tubes, each with a single pair of rails running through it. Boring the tunnels was done in less than a decade, although the whole project took 17 years to complete. The four TBMs (tunnel boring machines) used were monsters: German-made, they were each more than 400 metres long, weighed around 3000 tonnes and had 5000kW motors powering their cutting wheels. In a tunnelling tradition, they were given dainty, sunny nicknames by the tunnellers; the northbound machines were Sissi and Heidi, the southbound duo Gabi I and Gabi II.
It took a multinational crew and four 3000-tonne tunnel-boring machines to bore the longest tunnel in the world.
The tunnels they bored between Erstfeld and Bodio are straighter, flatter and lower than Favre’s Gotthard Tunnel. Hundreds of freight trains, each carrying triple the maximum tonnage allowed on the old line, speed through daily at 100km/h. Passenger trains are fewer but faster. They’re permitted to do 200km/h through the Gotthard Base Tunnel.
According to the readout displayed on the screen above the aisle in my First Class carriage, mine is doing exactly 199km/h. The Trenitalia Frecciarossa (Red Arrow), bound for Basel from Milan, takes less than 18 minutes to pass beneath the Alps. Such speed lops a useful 40 minutes or so off the pre-Base Tunnel travel time between northern Italy and central Switzerland. From Milano Centrale to Zurich Hauptbahnhof, for example, now takes a little under three-and-a-half hours.
The tunnel is unlit, so the impression of speed is all sonic. The hiss and rustle of disturbed air can be heard through the double-glazed window and there’s a low-frequency rumble from the bogies below. The ride is completely smooth.
I leave the Frecciarossa at Lucerne. With all freight trains now using the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the old line is now a tourist attraction. Regular local services still run, but the queen of the line is the new Gotthard Panorama Express. It runs once daily from this lovely lakeside city all the way to Lugano on weekdays, but stopping short at Bellinzona on weekends. Another Gotthard Panorama Express runs once a day in the reverse direction.
Lucerne is home to the Swiss Transport Museum, which attracts more visitors than any other collection of stuff in the country. Sited on the lake shore, a Gotthard Base Tunnel boring machine cutting wheel stands adjacent to its entrance. This work-worn tool, around nine metres in diameter, could easily be mistaken for some piece of modern sculpture.
Inside the sprawling museum is an area dedicated to the Gotthard Base Tunnel. The highlight is a 1:1000 cutaway model, which makes clear the scale and complexity of the project.
Switzerland can justifiably claim to have pioneered modern tourism back in the time of Queen Victoria, herself a visitor to this part of the country. They’re still adept at it, especially if the journey involves rails.
A steam boat operates between Lucerne and Flüelen, where you can board the Gotthard Panorama Express.
But the Gotthard Panorama Express experience begins, at least for those departing from Lucerne, no less romantically with a ferry. The Stadt Luzern, a stately paddle steamer built in the late ’20s, departs a dock in front of Lucerne’s railway station. The ferry’s been converted to run on oil, so there are no sweating stokers shovelling coal into its boiler furnace, but you can see its big, slow-turning three-cylinder engine at work in the centre of the vessel from the main deck.
Kilian Elsasser is aboard mainly to deliver a speech to the officials and guests riding this maiden run of the Gotthard Panorama Express. I speak with him after his speech, which had earned him a warm round of applause.
As the Stadt Luzern splashes along, Elsasser points out lakeside landmarks. There’s Rütli, the meadow where Switzerland was born in 1291 when three districts – Uri, Unterwalden and Schwyz – swore an oath of alliance against their Austrian Habsburg rulers. Here’s the rock where the maybe-mythical marksman William Tell leaped to freedom in 1307 from a storm-tossed boat. He was being held prisoner by a Habsburg-appointed overlord who’d famously forced him to shoot an apple from his son’s head to avoid punishment for a display of disrespect to the regime. Once free, so the legend goes, Tell used his crossbow again, this time kill his persecutor.
These are reasons the Swiss regard this area as the cradle of their nation. Elsasser believes the nearby Gotthard became connected with Switzerland’s sense of independence during World War II. Determined to preserve their neutrality, the Swiss threatened the destruction of Favre’s strategically important Gotthard Railway should Nazi boots step onto their soil.
“It was better than the Brenner,” Elsasser insists, referring to the other major rail route across the Alps, away to the east and running from Italy, via Austria, to Germany. The Swiss line was newer and better-designed, says the historian. “That’s typical Swiss. We don’t invent watches, but then we build the best. That’s also like our railways.”
The Stadt Luzern docks at Flüelen at the southern end of Lake Lucerne. It’s only a few steps to the Gotthard Panorama Express waiting at the adjacent station. The train pulls out punctually and heads south along the gradually narrowing valley of the Reuss River. After passing the northern portal of the Gotthard Base Tunnel at Erstfeld, the line spirals to gain height, providing passengers with three different views of the pretty little church of Wassen.
It doesn’t take long to traverse Favre’s 15-kilometre tunnel.
Soon we’re looking at the scenery of Ticino, Switzerland’s Italian-speaking canton, and feeling warmer. The train now spirals downwards, passing through gorges that were the most difficult part of the original path over the Gotthard. The train passes the south portal of the Gotthard Base Tunnel before pulling into the station at Bellinzona, famed for its trio of castles.
I ask Elsasser, who so loves the old Gotthard line that he bought a place in Göschenen at the northern end of Favre’s tunnel, what he thinks of the new Base Tunnel.
“As a Swiss citizen I’m very proud, because we really did a masterwork,” the historian replies. Elsasser says he voted ‘Yes’ in the referendums required in ultra-democratic Switzerland to approve the project, and rode on the first passenger train to travel through it in June 2016.
“But, on the other hand,” he continues, “it could be a tube in London or Paris. The big mountains and all this history, you don’t realise is there because it’s just a tunnel.” Elsasser leans close and lowers his voice. “In a way, it’s boring, you know …”
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Watch of the Week: TAG Heuer Formula 1 | Kith
The legendary sports watch returns, but with an unexpected twist.
Over the last few years, watch pundits have predicted the return of the eccentric TAG Heuer Formula 1, in some shape or form. It was all but confirmed when TAG Heuer’s heritage director, Nicholas Biebuyck, teased a slew of vintage models on his Instagram account in the aftermath of last year’s Watches & Wonders 2023 in Geneva. And when speaking with Frédéric Arnault at last year’s trade fair, the former CEO asked me directly if the brand were to relaunch its legacy Formula 1 collection, loved by collectors globally, how should they go about it?
My answer to the baited entreaty definitely didn’t mention a collaboration with Ronnie Fieg of Kith, one of the world’s biggest streetwear fashion labels. Still, here we are: the TAG Heuer Formula 1 is officially back and as colourful as ever.
As the watch industry enters its hype era—in recent years, we’ve seen MoonSwatches, Scuba Fifty Fathoms, and John Mayer G-Shocks—the new Formula 1 x Kith collaboration might be the coolest yet.
Here’s the lowdown: overnight, TAG Heuer, together with Kith, took to socials to unveil a special, limited-edition collection of Formula 1 timepieces, inspired by the original collection from the 1980s. There are 10 new watches, all limited, with some designed on a stainless steel bracelet and some on an upgraded rubber strap; both options nod to the originals.
Seven are exclusive to Kith and its global stores (New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Hawaii, Tokyo, Toronto, and Paris, to be specific), and are made in an abundance of colours. Two are exclusive to TAG Heuer; and one is “shared” between TAG Heuer and Kith—this is a highlight of the collection, in our opinion. A faithful play on the original composite quartz watch from 1986, this model, limited to just 1,350 pieces globally, features the classic black bezel with red accents, a stainless steel bracelet, and that creamy eggshell dial, in all of its vintage-inspired glory. There’s no doubt that this particular model will present as pure nostalgia for those old enough to remember when the original TAG Heuer Formula 1 made its debut.
Of course, throughout the collection, Fieg’s design cues are punctuated: the “TAG” is replaced with “Kith,” forming a contentious new brand name for this specific release, as well as Kith’s slogan, “Just Us.”
Collectors and purists alike will appreciate the dedication to the original Formula 1 collection: features like the 35mm Arnite cases—sourced from the original 80s-era supplier—the form hour hand, a triangle with a dot inside at 12 o’clock, indices that alternate every quarter between shields and dots, and a contrasting minuterie, are all welcomed design specs that make this collaboration so great.
Every TAG Heuer Formula 1 | Kith timepiece will be presented in an eye-catching box that complements the fun and colour theme of Formula 1 but drives home the premium status of this collaboration. On that note, at $2,200 a piece, this isn’t exactly an approachable quartz watch but reflects the exclusive nature of Fieg’s Kith brand and the pieces he designs (largely limited-edition).
So, what do we think? It’s important not to understate the significance of the arrival of the TAG Heuer Formula 1 in 1986, in what would prove integral in setting up the brand for success throughout the 90’s—it was the very first watch collection to have “TAG Heuer” branding, after all—but also in helping to establish a new generation of watch consumer. Like Fieg, many millennial enthusiasts will recall their sentimental ties with the Formula 1, often their first timepiece in their horological journey.
This is as faithful of a reissue as we’ll get from TAG Heuer right now, and budding watch fans should be pleased with the result. To TAG Heuer’s credit, a great deal of research has gone into perfecting and replicating this iconic collection’s proportions, materials, and aesthetic for the modern-day consumer. Sure, it would have been nice to see a full lume dial, a distinguishing feature on some of the original pieces—why this wasn’t done is lost on me—and perhaps a more approachable price point, but there’s no doubt these will become an instant hit in the days to come.
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The TAG Heuer Formula 1 | Kith collection will be available on Friday, May 3rd, exclusively in-store at select TAG Heuer and Kith locations in Miami, and available starting Monday, May 6th, at select TAG Heuer boutiques, all Kith shops, and online at Kith.com. To see the full collection, visit tagheuer.com
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8 Fascinating Facts You Didn’t Know About Aston Martin
The British sports car company is most famous as the vehicle of choice for James Bond, but Aston Martin has an interesting history beyond 007.
Aston Martin will forever be associated with James Bond, ever since everyone’s favourite spy took delivery of his signature silver DB5 in the 1964 film Goldfinger. But there’s a lot more to the history of this famed British sports car brand beyond its association with the fictional British Secret Service agent.
Let’s dive into the long and colourful history of Aston Martin.
The origin of the Aston Martin name
The company that would become Aston Martin started out as a car dealership. In 1912, Englishmen Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin partnered to sell cars, but soon after they decided to build their own models. Their first prototype debuted in 1915, named in honour of Martin, a racing driver, and his favourite racing venue, Aston Hills. Thus, the name Aston Martin was born.
A speed-demon co-founder banned from driving
Aston Martin co-founder Lionel Martin wasn’t just a keen racing driver—he was an all-out speed demon. As a student, Martin won numerous gruelling bicycle racing records, including riding nearly the full width of England in one 22-hour stretch. He competed in motorcycle and sidecar races and automotive hillclimb competitions. It seems he also brought that need for speed to the public roadways: In 1909, having neglected to pay a previous speeding fine, Martin was caught driving 41.5 km/ph in London and was banned from driving for two years—during which he set yet another cross-country bicycle record.
A tractor company takes over
The years after World War I were tumultuous for Aston Martin, with financial difficulties and numerous takeovers. In 1947, Aston Martin went up for sale and was purchased by David Brown Limited, a company that specialised in farm tractors and industrial gears. Sir David Brown, grandson of the company’s founder, was a lifelong car enthusiast and racer, having built his own competition cars while working as an engineer at the family company. The first car built by Aston Martin after this takeover was called the DB1, named after the tractor company (and the man) that had saved the carmaker.
An indirect connection to Bentley
Around the same time that Sir David Brown took over Aston Martin, he purchased another struggling British carmaker, Lagonda. The company was developing a revolutionary twin-cam six-cylinder engine called the LB6, and Sir David wanted the engine for his new line of Aston Martin sports cars. The Lagonda engine had been designed by none other than W.O. Bentley—the man who co-founded Bentley Motors, who had long since been pushed out of the company bearing his name.
The history of the DB Series
Aston Martin built seven vehicles named in honour of owner Sir David Brown: The DB1, DB2, DB3, DB4, DB5, DB6, and the combo-breaker DBS all bore Sir David’s initials. In 1972, Sir David sold the car company, and the new owners ended the DB series of vehicles, but the name was revived in 1993 with the DB7 in honour of Sir David—who himself was given an honorary position at the company that same year.
Bond, James Bond
Of course, the most famous Aston Martin of them all is the DB5. Just over 1,000 examples were built between 1963 and 1965, but millions worldwide know this as the James Bond car. In the books, author Ian Fleming had specified an earlier Aston Martin DB Mark III as Bond’s car. Still, the DB5 was introduced in the 1964 Bond film Goldfinger, equipped with gadgets including machine guns, smoke screens, oil slicks, an ejector seat, and rotating license plates. Bond has driven several Aston Martin models over the years, including a V8 Vantage, a V12 Vanquish, and two DBS models, but the original DB5 will always be considered the quintessential Bond car.
The angular years
Today, the Aston Martin badge is most closely associated with swooping, evocatively curvy car designs, but in the 1970s the company was obsessed with angular, wedge-shaped designs. The trend began in 1976 with the Aston Martin Lagonda, a shockingly unconventional four-door luxury sedan with “folded-paper” body styling and the world’s first all-digital instrument panel. The Lagonda’s styling was further evolved in 1979 with the Bulldog, a radical concept car with gullwing doors and a sharply pointed nose. The Bulldog was meant to become the fastest road car on earth, but the project was abandoned before production could begin.
For Bond’s eyes only
While most of James Bond’s Aston Martins have been commercially available to anyone who could afford one, the DB10 seen in the 2015 film Spectre was exclusive to 007. As Aston Martin executive Marek Reichman explained to Variety, director Sam Mendes, producer Barbara Broccoli, and Bond star Daniel Craig were touring Aston Martin’s design studios when they saw a concept sketch on the wall. The Bond team insisted that this should be 007’s next car, and Aston Martin spent the next six months furiously working to turn the drawing into a real-world car. The DB10 was unveiled during the launch of the film Spectre, and eight of the 10 examples built were featured in the movie, with the remaining two used for promotional appearances.
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The Italian city will now charge visitors an entry fee during peak season.
Visiting the Floating City just got a bit more expensive.
Venice is officially the first metropolis in the world to start implementing a day-trip fee in an effort to help the Italian hot spot combat overtourism during peak season, The Associated Press reported. The new program, which went into effect, requires travellers to cough up roughly €5 (about $AUD8.50) per person before they can explore the city’s canals and historic sites. Back in January, Venice also announced that starting in June, it would cap the size of tourist groups to 25 people and prohibit loudspeakers in the city centre and the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello.
“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’ Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official, told AP News. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”
During this trial phase, the fee only applies to the 29 days deemed the busiest—between April 25 and July 14—and tickets will remain valid from 8:30 am to 4 pm. Visitors under 14 years of age will be allowed in free of charge in addition to guests with hotel reservations. However, the latter must apply online beforehand to request an exemption. Day-trippers can also pre-pay for tickets online via the city’s official tourism site or snap them up in person at the Santa Lucia train station.
“With courage and great humility, we are introducing this system because we want to give a future to Venice and leave this heritage of humanity to future generations,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter) regarding the city’s much-talked-about entry fee.
Despite the mayor’s backing, it’s apparent that residents weren’t totally pleased with the program. The regulation led to protests and riots outside of the train station, The Independent reported. “We are against this measure because it will do nothing to stop overtourism,” resident Cristina Romieri told the outlet. “Moreover, it is such a complex regulation with so many exceptions that it will also be difficult to enforce it.”
While Venice is the first city to carry out the new day-tripper fee, several other European locales have introduced or raised tourist taxes to fend off large crowds and boost the local economy. Most recently, Barcelona increased its city-wide tourist tax. Similarly, you’ll have to pay an extra “climate crisis resilience” tax if you plan on visiting Greece that will fund the country’s disaster recovery projects.
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Omega Reveals a New Speedmaster Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics
Your first look at the new Speedmaster Chronoscope, designed in the colour theme of the Paris Olympics.
The starters are on the blocks, and with less than 100 days to go until the Paris 2024 Olympics, luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega was bound to release something spectacular to mark its bragging rights as the official timekeeper for the Summer Games. Enter the new 43mm Speedmaster Chronoscope, available in new colourways—gold, black, and white—in line with the colour theme of the Olympic Games in Paris this July.
So, what do we get in this nicely-wrapped, Olympics-inspired package? Technically, there are four new podium-worthy iterations of the iconic Speedmaster.
The new versions present handsomely in stainless steel or 18K Moonshine Gold—the brand’s proprietary yellow gold known for its enduring shine. The steel version has an anodised aluminium bezel and a stainless steel bracelet or vintage-inspired perforated leather strap. The Moonshine Gold iteration boasts a ceramic bezel; it will most likely appease Speedy collectors, particularly those with an affinity for Omega’s long-standing role as stewards of the Olympic Games.
Notably, each watch bears an attractive white opaline dial; the background to three dark grey timing scales in a 1940s “snail” design. Of course, this Speedmaster Chronoscope is special in its own right. For the most part, the overall look of the Speedmaster has remained true to its 1957 origins. This Speedmaster, however, adopts Omega’s Chronoscope design from 2021, including the storied tachymeter scale, along with a telemeter, and pulsometer scale—essentially, three different measurements on the wrist.
While the technical nature of this timepiece won’t interest some, others will revel in its theatrics. Turn over each timepiece, and instead of a transparent crystal caseback, there is a stamped medallion featuring a mirror-polished Paris 2024 logo, along with “Paris 2024” and the Olympic Rings—a subtle nod to this year’s games.
Powering this Olympiad offering—and ensuring the greatest level of accuracy—is the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9908 and 9909, certified by METAS.
A Speedmaster to commemorate the Olympic Games was as sure a bet as Mondo Deplantis winning gold in the men’s pole vault—especially after Omega revealed its Olympic-edition Seamaster Diver 300m “Paris 2024” last year—but they delivered a great addition to the legacy collection, without gimmickry.
However, the all-gold Speedmaster is 85K at the top end of the scale, which is a lot of money for a watch of this stature. By comparison, the immaculate Speedmaster Moonshine gold with a sun-brushed green PVD “step” dial is 15K cheaper, albeit without the Chronoscope complications.
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The Omega Speedmaster Chronoscope in stainless steel with a leather strap is priced at $15,725; stainless steel with steel bracelet at $16,275; 18k Moonshine Gold on leather strap $54,325; and 18k Moonshine Gold with matching gold bracelet $85,350, available at Omega boutiques now.
Discover the collection here
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Here’s What Goes Into Making Jay-Z’s $1,800 Champagne
We put Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 4 under the microsope.
In our quest to locate the most exclusive and exciting wines for our readers, we usually ask the question, “How many bottles of this were made?” Often, we get a general response based on an annual average, although many Champagne houses simply respond, “We do not wish to communicate our quantities.” As far as we’re concerned, that’s pretty much like pleading the Fifth on the witness stand; yes, you’re not incriminating yourself, but anyone paying attention knows you’re probably guilty of something. In the case of some Champagne houses, that something is making a whole lot of bottles—millions of them—while creating an illusion of rarity.
We received the exact opposite reply regarding Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 4. Yasmin Allen, the company’s president and CEO, told us only 7,328 bottles would be released of this Pinot Noir offering. It’s good to know that with a sticker price of around $1,800, it’s highly limited, but it still makes one wonder what’s so exceptional about it.
Known by its nickname, Ace of Spades, for its distinctive and decorative metallic packaging, Armand de Brignac is owned by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy and Jay-Z and is produced by Champagne Cattier. Each bottle of Assemblage No. 4 is numbered; a small plate on the back reads “Assemblage Four, [X,XXX]/7,328, Disgorged: 20 April, 2023.” Prior to disgorgement, it spent seven years in the bottle on lees after primary fermentation mostly in stainless steel with a small amount in concrete. That’s the longest of the house’s Champagnes spent on the lees, but Allen says the winemaking team tasted along the way and would have disgorged earlier than planned if they’d felt the time was right.
Chef de cave, Alexandre Cattier, says the wine is sourced from some of the best Premier and Grand Cru Pinot Noir–producing villages in the Champagne region, including Chigny-les-Roses, Verzenay, Rilly-la-Montagne, Verzy, Ludes, Mailly-Champagne, and Ville-sur-Arce in the Aube département. This is considered a multi-vintage expression, using wine from a consecutive trio of vintages—2013, 2014, and 2015—to create an “intense and rich” blend. Seventy percent of the offering is from 2015 (hailed as one of the finest vintages in recent memory), with 15 percent each from the other two years.
This precisely crafted Champagne uses only the tête de cuvée juice, a highly selective extraction process. As Allen points out, “the winemakers solely take the first and freshest portion of the gentle cuvée grape press,” which assures that the finished wine will be the highest quality. Armand de Brignac used grapes from various sites and three different vintages so the final product would reflect the house signature style. This is the fourth release in a series that began with Assemblage No. 1. “Testing different levels of intensity of aromas with the balance of red and dark fruits has been a guiding principle between the Blanc de Noirs that followed,” Allen explains.
The CEO recommends allowing the Assemblage No. 4 to linger in your glass for a while, telling us, “Your palette will go on a journey, evolving from one incredible aroma to the next as the wine warms in your glass where it will open up to an extraordinary length.” We found it to have a gorgeous bouquet of raspberry and Mission fig with hints of river rock; as it opened, notes of toasted almond and just-baked brioche became noticeable. With striking acidity and a vein of minerality, it has luscious nectarine, passion fruit, candied orange peel, and red plum flavors with touches of beeswax and a whiff of baking spices on the enduring finish. We enjoyed our bottle with a roast chicken rubbed with butter and herbes de Provence and savored the final, extremely rare sip with a bit of Stilton. Unfortunately, the pairing possibilities are not infinite with this release; there are only 7,327 more ways to enjoy yours.
