Taittinger tasting

This was a crazy tasting in many ways: for starters - M. and I had 3 hours alone with members of both the management team and one of the two oenologists, tasting the whole line up side by side. Such a beautiful set-up. And in the middle of which, I start feeling a food poisoning coming on extremely rapid (never eat funny tasting steak tartare at lunch before an afternoon of champagne tasting if you don't know the restaurant well...)

Suffice to say I was struggling to fully appreciate these wines. Under such circumstances, spitting out comtes de champagne is easier than it otherwise would have been. The tasting notes should thus be read with some caution. But I did get some grasp of the champagnes I feel and thus decided to post the notes anyways.

• NV Taittinger Champagne Brut Réserve / La Française 89 Points

  France, Champagne

  This is very fine for entry level. 40 % CH 30 % PN 30 % PM. Dosage 9 g. Has body from the Pinot but with fine mousse.

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• NV Taittinger Prelude 91 Points

  France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

  50 % CH 50 % PN. Dosage 10 g/l. 2005 tirage. 2004 vintage. 100 % grand cru. More lively, but also more elegant and longer on the palate. A remarkable minerality.

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• NV Taittinger Champagne Brut Prestige Rosé 88 Points

  France, Champagne

  Fruity and charming. Feels very young - would be good with some charcuteries. Dosage: 10 g/l

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• NV Taittinger Champagne Les Folies de la Marquetterie 89 Points

  France, Champagne

  Round, creamy, with a very expressive nose. Dosage 10 g/l. Partially raised en foudre.

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• 2004 Taittinger Champagne Brut Millésimé 91 Points

  France, Champagne

  This has quite some nose: with cream, patisserie, citrus fruit and more. very fine mousse.

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• 2003 Taittinger Champagne Brut Millésimé 91 Points

  France, Champagne

  More exprssive than the 2004, grapefruit, nuts, apricots and overall a feeling of mature fruit.

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• NV Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 93 Points

  France, Champagne

  A champion of blancs de blancs! 5 % of the fruit sees some new oak for 6 months. This has a most brilliant nose and also body and complexity. A very fine chardonnay based wine, to compete with a chablis grand cru or a meursault 1er cru.

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I think the Brut Tradition is reliable and great. The Prelude was as fine as any vintage grand crus we had on this trip and the comtes de champagne is a masterful wine. At one instance we were walking past a cave containing some of a younger bottling of this top of the line wine: the cave we were shown had 400 000 bottles in it.... There's an economy of scale to even impress a chateau-owner from Bordeaux, I would imagine...