Region | |
---|---|
Subregion | France > Champagne |
Colour | White |
Type | Sparkling |
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Taittinger
The 1998 Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne is simply beautiful. Sweet notes of honey are intermingled with candied citrus peel, flowers, smoke and minerals as this gorgeous wine opens up in the glass. Comtes de Champagne is always an understated, elegant wine, but its pedigree is impossible to miss. Readers seeking instant gratification will find much to admire even today, but this is clearly a wine that has the potential to develop positively in bottle. If past vintages are an accurate indication, the wine should acquire the liqueur-like sweetness in bottle that is its hallmark over time. Old vintages of Comtes de Champagne are unlike any other wine. The Comtes de Champagne is 100% Chardonnay from the grand cru villages Avize, Cramant, Chouilly, Beergers-les-Vertus, Vertus and Mesnil-sur-Oger. A small amount of the wine is aged in new French oak barrels. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2028.
Impressive and seamless from the get go, featuring lemon, apricot,smoke and spice aromas and flavors that build to the long conclusion. It's creamy, yet firm and fresh, with all its elements integrated for an alluring overall profile. Wonderful finesse and length. Drink now through 2028.
A rather odd wine when released, exuding both power and potent reductive aromas (bordering on faulty), I buried a couple of cases in the cellar (after not enjoying the first few bottles), not expecting any upside. Ten years later, I was surprised to discover quite a finessed wine with succulent fruit and a hint of toast (without any evidence of the previous fault). Never write off Taittinger! A recent bottle was perfectly mature, with sweet Mirabelle plum fruit coating the palate (and not toasty at all) and admirable length. I wouldn't hold these for more than a couple of years. Very good indeed! Drink from 2023-2025. Tasted: 15-Dec-22.