Delicate, fruit forward, fine - a good way to "warm" up the palate before the first blind flight and a positive surprise!

The weakest wine for me of the night and guessed blind that this was one of the non-prestige cuvee pirates. Peach, nuts, slightly sweet and simple. Still a lovely glass of bubbly.

A clear step up over the first wine in this blind flight (Delamotte BdB 08). This was singing and showed electric, mineral, green apple. A very strong Belle Epoque, must be one of the best vintages of this cuvee which I am not always in love with. Well done.

For most/all at the table this was the wine of the flight. Dry, nutty, mineral, some faint sherry tones, very long. When revealed we agreed that this is terrific value and it truly performed at prestige cuvee level. I was a bit anxious to see how this would show as I bought a few cases and I was very pleased to see this champagne drank blind to be Grande Annee. I look forward to my bottles in the future. Will only get better with age surely but already today a fantastic experience. If you don't already own this go and grab a case.

Blind identified as another non prestige cuvee pirate. Simple nose, a bit flinty. Was my 2nd least favourite of the night (Delamotte BdB 08 being the least favourite).

Served a bit too cold and it was tough to get a read on at first served blind. Certainly a step up after the Legras Vincent 08 alongside. Guessed pinot dominated, this was oxidative and at times showed some crystalline beauty. It was a good showing but myself and others were a bit underwhelmed when it was revealed as the Winston Churchill. The Dom served alongside was clearly better...

Clearly the best wine in this flight and besting the Winston Churchill pretty much unanimously for the table. Lots going on, great deep nose, flinty, mineral powder, sweetness of high quality ripe fruit. This is going to be tremendous Dom in time surely. Glad to have a few cases. This was the Legacy edition btw (which was disgorged a few weeks earlier than the regular label).

Having had this wine before twice (and scored 95 & 96) I immediately recognised it. It was by a margin the best wine of the night served so far (clearly a notch above great Dom and Grande Annee) and proved to be the best white champagne when all was said and done. The only champagne beating it for WOTN was a bottle of utterly sublime Cristal rose. Reflecting on this performance in this context I have no other choice but to up my score and go for a 98. The concentration was otherworldly here and people agreed fairly unanimously that this is epic. I am now convinced this is going to be monumental and will have no choice but to purchase more and follow this wines evolution over the next decades. Wow!

Nice surprise and one of the ringer champagnes. It stood up well against Philipponat Mareuil S Ay 08. But was bested by the Cristal in the flight. Mineral, very good.

Coming just after the Cristal it was a tough gig to follow. The group felt that this champagne probably needed more age. Very good structure, racy.

It was getting a bit late in the tasting/night so my note taking stopped. From memory very good structure, maybe a bit less generous on the fruit than other top offerings. But very good.

One of the ringers in the flight and it showed well. An overachiever given the modest price tag this evening. Probably the most oaky that night other than Grande Annee and some vanilla notes.

A good showing for La Grande Dame. No formal notes as late in the evening, in a flight which was of fairly equal quality.

After a long night of champagnes it is difficult to focus the palate. After the white version of Cristal had literally smashed the (admittedly stiff) competitive field, and knowing of the unfortunately high price tag of this wine there was certainly a lot of anticipation about this. From the first sniff I was able to focus again on this. Although I don't have any notes anymore as it was late in the evening this wine was simply mesmerising. It was a "logical" continuation from the white version tasted a few wines before, it was not quite as painfully intense immediately, but do not mistake that for a lack of power. The power just seemed to be wrapped in rose pedals. Silky, harmonious. In a funny way it reminded me of a DRC RSV 99 I had a few days prior in its fruit quality of soft red and black berry fruit that keeps on building on the palate and stays with you so long. In a way one wishes for the most expensive wine to not come first but there is no way this was not the WOTN. I think it was also unanimous around the table. And one could only feel sorry for Grande dame rose alongside (once from standard bottle, once from magnum). The Grande dame was not a bad wine but it was just very unfortunate to be in this flight and presence of a pretty much perfect champagne. 99+

Difficult to score this after a pretty perfect Roederer Cristal. We had it both from normal and magnum bottle. At this point I was only focused on the Cristal rose and it was late at night so unfortunately this wine didn't get much of my attention while under normal circumstances I would have been all over it.