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Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 1998

RegionChampagne
Subregion France > Champagne
ColourWhite
TypeSparkling
Grape VarietyChardonnay

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Tasting Notes

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.

94
Antonio Galloni, Wine Advocate (180), December 1998

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.

95
Bruce Sanderson, Wine Spectator, October 2008

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.

94
Steve Pritchard, Inside Burgundy, December 2022
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.