I have not had a lot of 2008 vintage champagne, but what I have has been outstanding, punching well above average for the house. The 2008 Henriot (their 200th Anniversary bottling) is outstanding. A few other random bottles. I do not drink enough champagne and I do not know much about vintages, but I really liked 1996 and many years I had a 1976 Dom Perignon gifted by a client that was outstanding, but 2008 seems better.
Hard to say that 2008 is a “better” vintage because the other variables have changed.
We know that winemaking and growing techniques are better even since 1996.
Jay,
I would say it is the best since 1996 though I am not convinced it will be a true classic or all-time great type of vintage like 1988, 1982, 1976, 1964, etc… You are betting on potential with 2008 and in most wines it is clearly there, but as with 1996, there were some mistakes made. A number of 2008s were made in the midst of an era when folks were experimenting more and more with oak (often new), no malolactic, low sulfur, and low dosage. There was a learning curve going on at this time and a number of wines that could have been very nice, were less than that. Some of the Chardonnays also had some oxidation issues. Pinot Meunier shined the brightest with Pinot Noir also doing exceptionally well. Chardonnay was very good, but not as good as the other two grapes. If you look back at the best vintages in Champagne, the basic trend or stereotype you find is that the best years tend to do very well with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Chardonnay tends to at least do okay in most vintages, but the Pinots are usually what makes or breaks the vintage as a whole. Of course, if you only make Chardonnay from one region, you don’t care about this.
2009 is also an interesting counterpart to 2008. As a whole, 2008 is better, but the economic issues of the time led a lot of producers to cut back on making vintage wines and some also cut back on NV quantity. This had a two fold effect - The vintage wines that were made were better than usual as many were even more selective when making them. The NVs based on 2009 had better quality base juice than normal and future NV releases had better quality reserve juice from 2009 to work with. The end result are wines from 2009 that are better than almost anyone thought. The vintage has also shown to be slow developing so far which is another very good sign for aging.
The 2012s have begun and will continue to roll out and I like 2012 more than 2008 as a whole although there are some weaker spots in 2012. You can make a case for the Chardonnays from the Cote des Blancs doing better in 2008 and the Cote des Bars production volume was very small in 2012. I like to say that 2012 is like combining the best qualities of 2008 and 2009, but many others would compare it more to the best qualities of 2008 and 2002. Regardless, 2012 is going to be great and it is another very strong year for the Pinots.
2018 is aonther vintage with the potential to be as good or better than 2008 although we will have to see how the wines develop especially with the high yields of the year. 2019 is probably going to be the best vintage of the century to date and might be the best vintage since 1964. Naturally low yields (relatively speaking), healthy grapes, all grape types did well, all regions did well. As still wines, with the limited sampling I was able to do at the end of 2019, they were better than anything I have ever tasted from the producers I visited and in most cases, by a rather large margin.
The 2020 Champagne harvest officially starts tomorrow and 2020 is already looking to be very promising. All points to the best trio of successive vintages since 1988-1989-1990. The only question now is the yield (it still hasn’t been set as all parties cannot agree) and the hope that the harvest still runs productively and with high quality.
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Thanks Brad, your posts are always informative and well written, and valued!
Super interesting and informative post Brad. Your remarks about Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier vs Chardonnay in 08 is truly insightful. Your remarks about 08, 09 and 12 confirm much of what I’ve experienced and it should be interesting to see how those vintages unfold over the next few years as well as for the long run.
This kind of information is so important for all of us who aspire to drink good bubbly and I am very grateful for your constant contributions as I would think many others are. I propose a virtual toast to you from all of us.
I’m interested in knowing what the learning curve with a vintage is. Do the characteristics reveal themselves quickly or is it a prolonged process. Was any of this information regarding 2008 published before the majority of wines had been released? Obviously this is when it would be most valuable to guide buying decisions.
You can get a fairly good feel for the vintage by the spring of the following year just before the wines are bottled. Of course, no one ever knows exactly where the wines will end up, but by tasting in the fall after harvest and in the spring before bottling, you can get a pretty good view on things. Of recent vintages, the only one that has really surprised so far is 2009. 2009 is better than what most thought at the time of bottling. Everyone knew it would be good, but very few thought it would be as good as it now appears. 2008 was always known to have great potential and a lot of people have been waiting many years for the wines to be released.
So, I`m assuming you plan your visits around sampling at this time to get the read on the vintage. Yes? Or do you have a reliable source that gives you this info?
Blake,
Yes, I traditionally visit in the November/early December time frame to taste the wines after fermentation has finished (sometimes it hasn’t for some wines) and then in April to taste the wines before bottling and often as final blends. I feel that you can really get a gauge on the wines, where they are going, and overall potential by tasting twice like this. Visits in June and July often also occur and depending on the producer, some still wines, reserve wines, and blends can be tasted at this time too, but that is too late for the current vintage’s still wines for a majority of producers.
I tend to try and keep to this schedule as it allows me to consistently evaluate the wines year after year and track progression while also allowing for year-over-year comparisons. I obviously missed tasting this April (and this July) due to COVID-19 so I am relying on what I tasted in November of 2019 and reports from winemakers I trust in terms of where the wines are headed. The only other year since 2007 that I missed tasting in April was 2010 due to the volcanic ash situation shutting down flights. After rescheduling, I didn’t get over to Champagne until June of 2010 and I think this affected some of my evaluation of the potential 2009 showed. I relied on my tastings in the fall of 2009 and while the wines were nice at that point, they didn’t seem as special as they now show on release. Most winemakers have told me that they didn’t necessarily see 2009 getting as good as it is, but they knew it might have a shot. There were a number of factors that made 2009 a bit different from most years, but I wonder if I would have noticed something more about the 2009s had I tasted them as originally planned in April 2010. I’ll never know, but I’ll always wonder.