2011 - Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne Rose

Disgorged in October 2022, the 2011 Brut Comtes de Champagne Rosé is a blend of 40% Chardonnay and 60% Pinot Noir, including fully 14% of red wine that lends it notable depth of color this year. Evoking aromas of cherries, buttery pastry, raspberries and tangerine, with an attractive minty top note, the bouquet is complex and incipiently spicy. Medium to full-bodied, layered and vinous, with chalky structuring extract, it concludes with a long, sapid finish. The limitations of the vintage mean that this is a giving, rather open-knit Comtes Rosé, but it is nevertheless a great effort in a challenging year and exhibits none of the herbaceous qualities that mar some of the wines produced in this year. Drink it now and over the next decade.

The 2011 Rosé Comtes de Champagne is soft, forward and open-knit, all of which make it a fine choice for drinking now and over the next handful of years. Sweet dried cherry, tobacco, mint, cedar and crushed flowers give this mid-weight Rosé lovely aromatic complexity. There are no hard edges or angular contours. Even so, I would prefer to drink the 2011 sooner rather than later, as it is a bit lacking in depth . The blend is 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir (including 16% still Pinot from Bouzy).

All from grands crus. 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay including 15% red wine according to the back label. Aged on lees for 10 years before being disgorged in October 2022 with a dosage of 9 g/l which is pretty apparent. Quite a deep colour, sort of pale tomato red. Intense ripe fruit on the nose – red fruits plus a note of orange. Very mouth-filling mousse that is just this side of too much and the wine positively bounces with fruit! And a bit of spice too. This seems a little looser-textured than the white version of Comtes but offers lovers of rosé champagne luxurious intensity of both flavour and texture, though it may not be dry enough for some palates. (JR)