2002 Champagne Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne, Blanc de Blancs, Brut
Critics reviews
Antonio Galloni - 31/10/2012
Gold Winner - Decanter World Wine Awards 2012
About this WINE
Champagne Taittinger
Taittinger is one of the few family-owned independent Champagne houses in Reims. It produces a very classy Non-Vintage blend and complex Vintage Champagnes as well.
Its top Champagne is Comtes De Champagne - first produced in 1952, it is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes from 6 Grand Cru sites in the Côte de Blancs. This is finely aromatic, rich, creamy Blanc de Blancs at its best, though patience is required as the wine should not be approached for at least ten years.
Brut Champagne
Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines (their proportion and age varies by brand) from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine. Champagnes from a single vintage are labelled with the year reference and with the description Millésimé.
Non-vintage Champagnes can improve with short-term ageing (typically two to three years), while vintages can develop over much longer periods (five to 30 years). The most exquisite and often top-priced expression of a house’s style is referred to as Prestige Cuvée. Famous examples include Louis Roederer's Cristal, Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, and Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.
Recommended Producers : Krug, Billecart Salmon, Pol Roger, Bollinger, Salon, Gosset, Pierre Péters, Ruinart
Chardonnay
Chardonnay is often seen as the king of white wine grapes and one of the most widely planted in the world It is suited to a wide variety of soils, though it excels in soils with a high limestone content as found in Champagne, Chablis, and the Côte D`Or.
Burgundy is Chardonnay's spiritual home and the best White Burgundies are dry, rich, honeyed wines with marvellous poise, elegance and balance. They are unquestionably the finest dry white wines in the world. Chardonnay plays a crucial role in the Champagne blend, providing structure and finesse, and is the sole grape in Blanc de Blancs.
It is quantitatively important in California and Australia, is widely planted in Chile and South Africa, and is the second most widely planted grape in New Zealand. In warm climates Chardonnay has a tendency to develop very high sugar levels during the final stages of ripening and this can occur at the expense of acidity. Late picking is a common problem and can result in blowsy and flabby wines that lack structure and definition.
Recently in the New World, we have seen a move towards more elegant, better- balanced and less oak-driven Chardonnays, and this is to be welcomed.
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Description
The treat of treats this Christmas. Quite simply one of the greatest Champagnes I’ve sampled in ages. Sparky aromas, bright and tight, hints of toasty grilled nuts with intensely focused, very long-lasting flavours. A treasury of sensations to be cherished with every sip.
(Olly Smith - Mail on Sunday - 16-Dec-2012)
Les Comtes is one of the greatest of all-Chardonnay Champagnes, its fruit sourced from the finest Grand Cru sites of the Côte des Blancs. Blue chip provenance includes the villages of Avize, le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Cramant; the best of the best in other words. Or, doubly appropriate, given its luxuriant gustatory profile; la crème de la crème. 5% of the wine is aged in wood before spring bottling and the ensuing lengthy somnolence wherein the alchemical process of autolysis weaves its patient magic over a decade.
2002 is now recognised as the greatest Champagne vintage over the last quarter of a century. The Comtes is, unsurprisingly, utterly brilliant…Fresh almonds, vanillin and verbena are balanced by a generous biscuity, spicy brioche character and then a firm and discretely indulgent finish. Poise and power are powerfully poised….. here we clearly have an extremely noble count.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)
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