Comtes de Champagne Taittinger 2012

Comtes de Champagne 2012, the hotly anticipated new vintage from Taittinger, has just been released. It comes from the excellent 2012 vintage and has been universally praised by the critics. We have just tasted it ourselves, and were very impressed: it is superb.

Renowned as one of the finest blanc de blancs on the market, Comtes de Champagne is Taittinger’s top cuvee. It is made entirely from grand cru grapes from the Cote des Blancs, in particular from the villages of Avize, Cramant, Chouilly, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger. Much of the fruit comes from Taittinger’s own vineyards; the house is the third largest grower in the whole of Champagne. For Comtes de Champagne, fermentation in a small percentage of new oak and a long 10 year cellar maturation enhance the finesse and elegance that are the hallmarks of this cuvee.

The excellent 2012 vintage gives this iteration of Comtes de Champagne a particular openness and aromatic exuberance. Frost and hail early in the season reduced yields, but warm, dry conditions in August made for grapes with high levels of maturity, balanced by good acidity.

This new release comes at a time of high demand for Champagne, and for Taittinger Comtes in particular. Champagne has outperformed fine wine in general over the last few years. The rise of secondary market trading of Champagne has been such that Livex has recently created a Champagne index, in which Comtes de Champagne is the second strongest performer – ahead of Cristal, Dom Perignon and Krug. Against this backdrop, the 2012 Comtes pricing looks very reasonable indeed.

This is an excellent wine, and an excellent buy. The only problem is the quantity: much less wine than usual has been released into the UK market.

read more