2011 Champagne Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne, Blanc de Blancs, Brut

From grand cru vineyards in Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger. Aged for nine years in Taittinger's particularly deep cellars. Dosage 9 g/l.

Quite a deep greenish primrose yellow. Meaty, substantial, quite savoury evolution on the nose. Bone-dry finish but no shortage of rather captivating fruit before then. Very appetising with good steady bead and no aggressive froth. A very successful Comtes with a deep undertow. This may have been a challenging vintage but the Taittinger team seem to have risen well to the challenges.

Drink 2021 - 2029

The 2011 Champagne Blanc de Blancs Comte de Champagne is from all the Côte de Blancs Grand Crus except for Oiry. With a kiss of toasted brioche, caramel apple, and a hint of saline, this wine gets more savoury as it opens, although it has a bit of greenness. The palate is full, with a fine mousse and a dusty feel of chalk, as well as fresh and pithy citrus. It has a reasonably long finish, although perhaps not up to par for the tête de cuvée. It is drinking well now but is likely best for relatively early drinking. 

Drink 2022 - 2033

Dosage: 9g/L. Disgorged: April 2021.

100% Chardonnay sourced from five grand cru villages: Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger. Superb bouquet revealing scents of mirabelle plums, orchard fruits, brioche, pastry, and liquorice, complicated by classy autolytic notes. On the palate, this remarkable 2011 has a tauter and more fine-boned texture than usual, which is enhanced by bubbles of striking finesse and delicacy. This is indeed a very refined, chamber-music-like Comtes de Champagne that ends ethereally with airy harmonics and chalky notes infused with candied lemon.

Drink 2021 - 2040

After the tightly coiled, hyper-concentrated 2008, Taittinger's 2011 Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne represents a more immediate, charming rendition of this cuvée. Bursting from the glass with aromas of orchard and stone fruit mingled with notions of pastry cream, blanched almonds and mandarin, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and fleshy, with a soft and enveloping profile, lively acids and a pretty pinpoint mousse. Readers might think of the 2011 as a somewhat less reductive and less intense stylistic sibling of the 2006, and as it takes on more toasty complexity with bottle age, it will make for immensely seductive drinking.

Drink 2021 - 2035

9 years on the lees, disgorged April 2021, 9 g/l dosage.

An insider Champagne, the Comtes de Champagne from Taittinger 2011 is at a great moment to begin drinking. A Blanc de Blancs made entirely from Chardonnay grapes sourced from entirely from Grand Cru vineyards in Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger, this is accomplished and moreish, with plenty of grip, green apple, quince and citrus fruit, with expertly-maintained kicks of citrus peel and apricot pit through the palate, deepening in complexity and exotic fruit expression in the glass.

Drink 2022 - 2038

A firm, fresh Comtes with a tight and composed palate. It’s full-bodied with a racy mid-palate. Long and persistent. Very structured with phenolics and acidity. Minerally. Floral, too. Refreshing and energetic.

Drink or hold