Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 2004

Bright gold colour in the glass. The nose is rich and aromatic, with creamy, ripe orchard fruit and freshly baked bread. The palate is dense and concentrated, with layer upon layer of ripe peach, white strawberry, nectarine, cream, and toast. There is a bold autolytic note to pair with the dense fruit core that gives the wine incredible length. This is a powerful and complex Champagne, still refreshed by balancing acidity. A superb, complete, and rounded wine for lovers of the Winston Churchill style.

Tasted blind. Quite spicy on the nose and just a little bready. Quite a bit of grip on the palate, firm, almost chewy but rounded with creamy texture. Crisp acidity and fabulous intensity. Powerful and more red fruited than the previous wine (which turned out to be the 1999 from bottle). My guess: 1999 bottle.

An intense golden-yellow color dresses the Pol Roger prestige cuvée 2004 Sir Winston Churchill, which opens with a clear, deep, dense, ripe, fresh, pure and elegant bouquet of matured apples, apricots and lemon flavors along with exciting spicy flavors. Although this Brut is already more than 11-years-old, it is dew-fresh and still developing--slowly. This Champagne is highly complex and well structured on the palate, with grapefruit flavors; it is a full-bodied and intense, yet very firm, persistent, fresh and very elegant assemblage of unnamed Grand Cru Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. It reveals a very long and complex, powerful but stimulating finish, and obviously, an eternal youth. The finish is powerful and stringent, and reveals a great, great aging potential. The wine is somewhat restrained and too compact at the moment though, and should benefit from a longer bottle aging.