TN: Pol Roger Winston Churchill 2002

WINE TALK
#1
  • 2002 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill - France, Champagne (6/16/2018)
    A big and richly styled Champagne…golden yellow in the glass with notes of brioche, Bartlett pear, yellow apple, and brow butter sauce. The palate is medium-full bodied, medium-high acidity, with notes of Macintosh apple, cherry, and kiwi. There’s a depth to this that is lovely…but it is sadly not the caliber of wine I was hoping it would be. Excellent!!!

Posted from CellarTracker

#2

So, excellence was not what you we’re seeking?

#3

For me, in 2011 the ‘96 re-defined how I understood Champagne. It was probably one of the greatest wine “moments” I’ve had to-date. While this wine was excellent…it’s on par quality with wines I drink that are 1/3 the price. So yes, it was excellent…but not up to the standards i’d been hoping for. I opened a ‘96 last year and again found it lacking the freshness of the wine I had the year before. This is special, but you can get wines for much less that are easily as complex as this.

#4

This is the primary reason I almost never buy wines at this price point. And excellent wine, and a great wine moment, becomes a disappointment because it wasn’t special enough. I like to be able to drink and evaluate a wine, and enjoy it, without a calculator running in the background. And if a wine sucks, I want to be able to pour it down the drain and start again without major trauma. Basically, I want to have fun drinking a wine, and if an excellent wine is so expensive that it becomes a downer, it defeats the purpose.

This means that I will likely never buy a DRC, drink first growths very rarely (maybe once or twice a year), have exactly one bottle of Winnie champagne etc. Quite apart from whether I can “afford it,” it just not worth it to me.

#5

Kirk,

What were you looking for? Mind altering experiences usually don’t come in 750 ml bottles. :wink:

#6

I picked up (and drank) a few in HK January of last year for the equivalent of US$192/bottle. I thought it was very good for that price.

#7

Two weeks ago I had a '04 Pol Roger WC. Out of the gate it had pretty strong yeast notes, but as the glass warmed those dissipated into beautiful pear, apple, citrus, brioche notes and wonderfully long finish. We sampled the PR WC along side an aged Krug NV. Both were superb.

#8

definitely agree that, in the context of 96 Winnie, the 02 pales. Good, not great. I will give the rest of mine more time.

#9

Thank you all for the feedback. It has had me re-thinking my buying patterns. There are too many great Champagnes for far less…