Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Grands Crus Blanc de Blancs 2008 Magnum 1.5 Litre

Product Details

Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Grands Crus Blanc de Blancs 2008 Magnum 1.5 Litre

One of the last prestige cuvée Champagnes to be released from the great 2008 vintage, the Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut finally made its appearance in October after the original release date in June was postponed thanks to the dreaded C-word, Covid.

Made only in exceptional vintages, only the first pressing is used to extract the best from the raw material. Bringing an extra je-ne-sais-quoi, 5% of the prestige cuvée is fermented in new and one-year-old oak for four months, with fruit sourced from the five grand cru villages of Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Chouilly and Cramant.

Following the prise de mousse, the wine spent 12 years on its lees in the subterranean calm of Taittinger’s Gallo-Roman chalk cellars 18 metres below ground at Saint-Nicaise in Reims before receiving a dosage of nine grams per litre. The wine was disgorged in July 2019.

The result is a pale golden sparkling wine, whose steady bead of tiny bubbles throws up subtly restrained lemon toast and praline notes in the aroma. In the mouth, the wine is as yet tight, linear and intense, gradually opening out into a luxurious silkiness of mousse whose citrusy flavours are supported by a high tensile spine, providing youthful structure which itself underpins a zesty dry, mouthwateringly saline finish. It exudes class nonetheless and needs a decade or even longer for its full qualities to unfurl. Drink 2021 – 2035. Awarded 95 points from the Real Review.